


Hunting Season

by Control_Room, Random_ag



Series: Tortured Tales [28]
Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Also if youre wondering the Strego is a real thing!, Alternate Universe - Angels & Demons, Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, Back rubs, Control came up with everything, Demon Hunters, Dont worry it gets better for him, Falling In Love, Force-Feeding, Heartbreak, Henry is smart but also a DICK, Its random talking rn, Johan is the Last Of His Kind, Loss, Magical Races, Massage, Mentioned Extinction, Not gonna lie: this world slaps, Referenced Ownership of Sapient Being, Suggestive Dreams, Suggestive Themes, Threat of Intubation, Trafficking, Unbalanced Society, as he always is, breakdowns, forced eating, if you love let go, letting go, theyre great
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:00:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 32,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27688639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Control_Room/pseuds/Control_Room, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Random_ag/pseuds/Random_ag
Summary: Henry's on the hunt for a catch of a lifetime.Lucky for him, catch has quite a few meanings.
Relationships: Thomas Connor/Wally Franks/Sammy Lawrence
Series: Tortured Tales [28]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2023520
Comments: 29
Kudos: 5





	1. Chase

Henry lifted his head from the trail. It would not be too far from the demon, now. 

He could read the thing was tiring, unable to fly, for some reason. Normally he would have to catch them within ten hours of spotting their path, otherwise they would take off and he would curse his luck, going home without a snag. This one seemed hurt. Gait was long, though…. Perhaps it was just a taller one. That would be good. The smaller ones were more common, and sold less. This one better be worth a near weeklong trek on its tail. Additionally, the path was winding-- was it even aware that he was following it? The being’s kind was known to be highly intelligent, but that did not do much to tell him just how perceptive and aware of their surroundings they were. For all he could have known, the demon could have been both completely oblivious of its status as prey and perfectly conscious not only of his stalking predator, but of its exact distance from him as well.

He sighed deeply. His legs were sore, his eyes tired. Five days. It was taking him five long and lonely days to track this one demon. This was turning out to be his longest hunt yet, and the unusual length displeased him immensely. He wanted nothing but to be done with it: the sooner he finally got the damn thing, the better. This whole exhausting hunt better be done soon, he grumbled softly to himself. And, he thought foully, looking up as the grey sky darkened all the more, it better pay well. Maybe it would have rare eyes. Those always added a good chunk to the salary. It would be a nice ‘perk’, as his tip off liked to call them. Wally was a lazy fae talker, but he and his triplets were good at spotting demons where they did not belong. 

Henry’s trained ears tuned out the sounds of an inhuman voice, not too far away.

Jackpot. 

As silently as he could he slid closer to his target, searching a hiding spot. Army crawling, he spotted the tracks going into and onto the small stream. The footprints remained on the surface of the water, slowly fading after some time. A water walker…. Henry felt himself smile just a bit, the fruits of his labour finally starting to pay off. Those brought in quite a bit more than the average demon. Anything out of the ordinary, like, say, one or two more tails, some tentacles or an extra pair of limbs? Added in at least a thousand bulliots. Especially tentacles, which Henry did not mind-- but thought it a bit groan worthy nonetheless, all the more so considering how hard it was to get a grip on one of those slippery bastards, though they came happily once they heard their likely destination. Henry shook his head out of his thoughts, cursing the perving assholes (human and otherwise) for distracting him. Though, he was quite sure this one would have extra arms, thanks to a uv fingerprint scan he read earlier in his hunt. It was one of the reasons he stuck by this one so long, curiosity aside. Extra armed ones usually tended to be good servants and workers, or caretakers, and brought in a nice buck. 

The surface of the water flexed and rippled under the weight of a pair of feet moving erratically and fluidly, with no real reason, but perhaps a rhythm. Henry’s eyes followed the path of the ripples, the being creating them still out of sight, and the world seemed a bit lighter. He realized with a click. Dancing, that's what the thing was doing: dancing and singing without a care in the world.

Singing? Yes, singing. Henry could hear crickets chirp along and cicadas whistle beside, though he could not hear the voice just yet. Oh, this one would be a good haul. Henry thanked G-d and then his lucky stars for the excellent fortune coming upon him. This demon would be able to go anywhere. Entertainment districts, oddity exhibits, museum curation, caretaker training--  _ anywhere _ . He could sell it to the highest bidder, and it would bring to him a good amount of eyes, and he would be able to sell even the most painfully common run-of-the-mill demon by far higher than the competition could have dreamed.

Crawling forward just a bit, he kept his eyes down, as they tended to feel eyes if the being looked at them first before entering their area. Seemed to be a form of respect, but Henry did not care, it just gave him more time to get into the mindset, quelling the adrenaline that would always rise with the thrill of the chase. He could finally hear their voice; and what a voice it was. 

Definitely male, but with a high end, soft spoken as though he were almost afraid (which he should be, Henry thought to himself), but happy nonetheless with a quiet kind of joy, singing about (from what Henry could understand from his differing language) the beauty and terror of water. 

He carefully raised his gaze to take in the sight of his prey.

Only two words could fill his mind when he saw them.

Hot damn. 

And then another two words:

Holy shit. 

Two more.

Thank G-d.

He was having a bit of trouble composing thoughts larger than two words, which he noticed with a mortified thought, that being: Oh Fuck.

Another two words hit him, and it made him grab his camera, just for evidence. Broken wings. It made him frown just a bit, as the cost would lower from the need for medical care, but dear G-d. The price on this one could hardly be damaged by such a small issue. The photo would suit to cover the fact that he did not break the wings in trying to catch him. 

He took them in through the lens, savoring the vast amount of oddities that he would be able to exploit for one, two, ten thousand bulliots. He could not see their eyes to check if they were a rare shade of color, but with so many different shifts on this one? It would just cover the payment for the broken wings. This was amazing. Possibly the most astounding specimen he had ever gotten the pleasure to hunt down.

He flicked open his scanner and found the being’s cloak, gently laid over a rock by the riverside. Slowly, careful not to disturb the dancing demon, he approached the discarded robe. A strand of the demon’s hair seemed to have gotten stuck in it, luckily for him, which was exactly what he wanted. He placed it on the scanner and let it do its work as he scoped the area, getting ready for a path of pursuit. 

A flash indicated the machine was done. He glanced down at it, and then again, going completely still.

Terragrade.

But… but weren’t those extinct?

He could have sworn to have heard and read of their disappearance over twenty years ago several times and even while it was happening, a total species extermination due to their deranged leader who insisted to wage war upon the humans, even despite its own mate being one. 

And yet…

He side eyed the singing figure as it gracefully moved across the water surface.

If the scanner was not lying, and that was, indeed, one of if not the very last Terragrade to ever exist… then he had just been served a treasure of incomprehensible value on a silver platter.

It explained the fear, the broken wings. Clearly, they had been hunted before. 

But not by Henry. 

He slipped back into the woods and put a piece in his mouth, a communicator that let him ‘talk’ without opening his mouth.

‘Hey Sammy,’ he said without any fanfare.

“How’s your hunt going?” the musician and demon breaker asked without prompt.

‘Oh, the usual,’ he minimized, trying his best not to smirk, ‘Found the little thing, turned out to be a pretty tall one. Might be the last of its kind. Looks like a rare one.’

“An endling?” Sammy snorted, then shouted something to his charges. “Yeah right, Stein. No species have gone extinct in the past ten years, and the chances of finding an endling past that is a joke. Once you catch it you can bring it here and prove it. ”

‘I will,’ Henry grinned. ‘You really think that it’s impossible past ten years?’

“I don't think so, I know so.”

‘Then I guess it won't be a big thing to care about, the fact that it seems to be a Terragrade…’

There was silence.

‘Sammy?’

“Bring it here. Now.”

‘I haven’t caught it yet--’

“Then hurry up and move that slow ass of yours!” Sammy nearly yelled at him, “Do you  _ know _ what you're even talking about?! Of all extinct species, Terragrades are-- no, I’m not talking about Terragrades, go away Johnny--” his voice lowered before he continued. “Terragrades are the most coveted of all species. You’re standing next to a literal goldmine; you don’t even have to sell it, in fact, if it is a Terragrade, you  _ shouldn’t _ sell it. The thought of selling it shouldn't even graze the surface of your skull. If you attempt that, I will personally go out of my way to get you and turn  _ you _ into a Terragrade, a  _ dead _ one. Keep it and sell glimpses of it, rent it out-- fuck, man, you can make an earldom out of it. But don't you dare just  _ sell the whole thing _ ! I will slap you to death with a banjo if you even try.”

‘Then I guess I won't.’

“If you know what's good for you you won't. Now you better get that thing, or so help me G-d I'll never let you live this down. A Terragrade! A Terragrade!”

Henry took out the piece, sufficiently amused and pumped to hunt. His eyes had never left his goal, the water walker slipping into the deep for a moment and emerging next to his cloak. It seemed to notice some minute change, and held the cloak carefully before slipping it on, hiding his face under a dark hood. With the long cloak around his body, he looked no different than another tall hunter, Henry realized in shock. Had he seen him before without even realizing? Did this demon walk among those who sought to grasp him, knowing that was the most brilliant way to avoid getting caught? He remembered how clever Terragrades were said to be - the whole lot of them smart to a fault, no matter their intentions. He had met one Terragrade belonging to a trader, and they amused him with a slight of hand and a smooth tongue that told smart and calming stories. He had cried when he had heard that his owner had shot him point blank when the rebellion was arising. He shook his head, and returned to his prey. To survive so long, this one must have been one among the best of them. 

Henry did not smile at their extinction, but he did at his small joke: this one was the best. 

Well, if he was going to look like a hunter, Henry would play along with it. Back tracking, he straightened his back and jumped around a bit to look tired, and then approached the river, taking a long draught from his hands to hide his smile after waving at… ‘the hunter’. They noticed his gesture, perhaps surprised at the sight of him, but reciprocated it with a nod of their head.

“Maybe you’re on the same trail I am,” Henry remarked, moving to sit next to him, stretching his back. He could hardly believe that this was a Terragrade. “Any ideas?”

“No,” he said, in a gruff voice that only Henry could tell was a disguise, and only because he had heard him talk before. “I’ve ‘eard talk ‘f a interestin’ bugger ‘f a fae ‘round these parts.”

The disguise was immaculate, he had to give it to him. It was truly astonishing. 

“A fae? Ah, no, different path.” he shook his head, “Looking for a demon here, actually-- though you could argue those critters are all the same. A lot of folks do.”

The other gave a pensive hum.

“Been told it's a rare one,” Henry continued, observing his reactions closely, “An endling of some extinct species, apparently.”

The ‘hunter’ stiffened slightly.

“I've ‘eard folks been seein’ somethin’ like a Strego ‘round here, perhaps.” he offered him with calculated absentmindedness, as if the subject did not touch him in the slightest. “Those been gone for quite some time, ain't they? B’not extinct, no siree. You might be goin’ after one ‘f them sneaky critters, er maybe even a shape shifte’, one that likes to tease us hunters-- I’ve come across one er two like ‘em.”

Henry took a step closer: “Could be.” he allowed. He smiled slyly, and leaned in as if to whisper a secret: “But they've told me it could be even a Terragrade.”

He froze in place, not even breathing.

“A rather tall one.”

Henry came even closer.

“Seems to like to sing and dance.”

Their heads rotated in unison, one to avert its gaze, the other to catch it. He tried to see their eyes, hand reaching behind himself infinitesimally to grasp a tranquilizer. 

“Seen something like that around here?”

Henry cursed as ice cold water splashed over his face, blinding him briefly and making him flinch with its bitter chill. By the time his eyes were open again, the Terragrade had already started fleeing along the river, long legs eating metres and metres as he distanced himself from the hunter, sometimes using the current and splash to boost him along the path. He cursed his cockiness as he took off after him, wiring his flight gear in case this one decided to take off and the broken wings were a facade to trick hunters into believing him an easy prey and then shooting to the sky. Henry noted the path they were taking was leading to a waterfall, and he took off from the ground. 

Henry dove at the same time the demon did, the demon diving down into water and Henry down-- just down, plummeting as the sudden shift in pressure decalibrated his flight. The demon froze halfway down as Henry, cursing, splashed past him.

Henry’s vision went white and he screamed underwater. 

Then air. Hands under his shoulders, dragging him and depositing him on the shore. He could not feel his left arm. Looking to it, he felt dizzy at the sight of the incorrect angle. His vision still pulsed, and he sank downward onto the moss. A cloak was over him. 

He came to his senses just in time to see the retreating heels of the Terragrade. He felt tears of frustration sting his eyes. Not only did he miss the catch of a lifetime, he had a broken arm, a cloak, and a single hair to show for it. A waste of five days-- and make it ten if he could not catch anything on his way back home, which would be exceedingly difficult with a broken arm. Eleanor would heal him at home, but to come home empty handed would be a sting to his pride sharper than a scorpion bite that refused to heal. 

“Wait,” he croaked, trying to sound even more pitiful than he looked. The thing was susceptible to emotions, clearly-- or at least had a heart. Henry hardened his own. “Wait, don’t… don’t leave me here… my arm… my arm really hurts….”

The Terragrade looked along the river, and back at him, there and back again. To Henry’s utter shock and complete delight, it seemed to be… returning.

He overly groaned and gripped at his elbow, looking up at him with begging in his eyes. The Terragrade’s eyes were squinted and his brow was arched in pain, but he knelt, cusping Henry’s arm in two of (Henry quickly recounted) six hands. A warmth that was known to him eased into the limb, straightening it and replacing the bone where it belonged. He flexed his fist, smiling, and his right hand snapped around the Terragrade’s throat, making a gasp cut off sharply as he slammed him to the ground. 

A scream ripped from its throat, and Henry had to raise his defenses once more. It writhed and tried to escape, but he kept his grip firm, tying around his wrists a special knot taught by Norman that looped around all his wrists. Some demons froze when they were bit, but Henry had never dealt with a Terragrade, maybe they were toxic? It was begging him to let it go, and he only tightened the knots. Muffling his cries with a gag, he made sure the knots were good, keeping his knee pressed into the Terragrade’s back, and he measured a length of rope to keep it from running. Once it was fully secured, he got up, and surveyed his handiwork. 

The Terragrade was crying on the ground, curling up, hands twitching into weak fists, twin barbed tails sunk to the dirt. 

Henry looked away. 

“Well,” he said, smiling slightly and patting its shoulder, removing the gag now that it's screaming was expended. “That wasn’t so hard, now, was it?”

“Go to hell,” it rasped with a hiss and sob, false accent dropped. It tried to wriggle away from his touch, enraged and frightened. “Let me g-go, please, I beg you.”

“No can do, darling.” Henry replied as he grabbed the rope tight and made it rise up to its feet. “I've been chasing after you for far too long, and I've got mouths to feed at home. You're coming with me.”

The Terragrade planted its feet in the ground, desperately fighting against Henry's grip. It looked at him with its ruby eyes pleading, anger and terror ebbing through them in equal measure. The hunter sighed at its tenacity and tugged them gently in the direction he had chosen, the way towards home. Those eyes were quite rare, and rather beautiful. No wonder those true reds sold so high. 

“Come on, now. Don't make this more difficult than it needs to be for either of us.”

Henry heard it crying as he led him back through the forest, stumbling every few paces as it cried out woefully for the river, for the trees, for the plants and animals.

Henry hardened his heart.


	2. Gavage

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter has the following warnings:  
> threats of intubation and, as the title suggests, forced eating.

Henry made sure to cloak the Terragrade before entering into the city where Sammy worked, binding him to hide him as he truly did not need to attract unwanted attention at this time. He had not slept the night before, and made sure that his catch had not either, weakening him-- but not Henry, who drank coffee about once every two hours. Henry did not ask for its name, but he called it “Bendy”-- like the way he moved and danced. Bendy was constantly pleading to go back to the rivers and roads, struggling against him as Henry would gag him again to go into the city. He put in the mouthpiece again, and pinged Sammy. Sammy informed him he was at his work studio, and that he was free to drop by whenever he wanted. He said nothing about his charge.

Henry leisurely strolled across town, keeping a firm grip on the restless and terrified demon. Henry had pulled him into an alley and whispered in his ear that if anyone realized he was an unowned demon, he would be pounced upon as though the townsfolk were starved tigers and he was fresh meat. Bendy’s jaw only knotted, as if he could hardly care about Henry’s words. Henry did not mind, just as long as it understood. Soon they were at Sammy’s studio, cleared out for the day. The musician was sitting at his desk, waiting for the hunter to come in. A single glance at the two beings entering was enough to make him jump to his feet, eyes the size of cups of tea.

“That’s a big one,” he commented, getting up to inspect around. “Well, I can’t really tell much else other than that. How do I know it’s not just seven gnomes on top of each other? Or a dozen green dwarves that you’re going to sell to a love potion brewer in a trenchcoat?”

“Lock the door, Lawrence,” Henry instructed , glancing about. The musician complied silently.

The hunter removed the long cloak from his snared prey, and Sammy's jaw found itself straining to reach the floor. He raised a hand towards it, not too high nor too close, as if afraid of damaging the creature by merely approaching it. The fire burning in those red eyes said otherwise. 

“Hot damn. Holy shit. Oh fuck.” he echoed with a dry throat. “Even if that’s not a Terragrade, you could sell that to the goddamn king and queen. Maybe even the fucking president. Dear G-d,  _ look _ at this.” He whistled, making Bendy’s hair stand on end. He circled around him once more, tilting his head to inspect it better. “It's… it's absolutely gorgeous. Is that blue hair? Henry, Henry, you’ve outdone yourself with catching something like this. It’ll keep you in bulliots for years to come-- and even when it’s dead.”

The Terragrade attempted to shrink in its shoulders, and would have bared its teeth had it not been for the gag in his mouth.

“Does it have a name?”

“I’ve been calling it Bendy. Good not to get too attached to these ones, you know?” Henry smiled, disregarding the way ‘Bendy’ gnashed at the gag. “Plus demons aren’t very keen on giving their names. Must have learned that from the fae.”

“They  _ stole _ them from us,” the Terragrade hissed, gag ripped with sharp teeth. “ _ Our _ names. They kept them and s-stole them. We k-killed them for it, and got our n-names back, and many new ones. This was part of us, to take names-- and they learned it, and tried to use it against us.”

“That voice is very mesmerising,” Sammy murmured in awe of those fangs, deciding to digest the gruesome information later. “A voice made for singing, definitely.”

“Let me go,” it begged again. “Please.”

Sammy shook his head slightly.

“Don’t let that go, Henry,” he warned. “Not for your life. Or I will personally end it.”

“You've told me as such.”

“You know I keep my word.”

“Yep.”

“You didn’t hurt it, did you?” Sammy asked, almost touching Bendy’s wing-- but did not, much to the demon’s relief. Henry shook his head, and Sammy frowned. “Then why…?”

“I don’t know. Do you want to tell us, sweetheart?”

“Go to hell, you’ll f-find out there.”

“I’m going to go get Norman,” Sammy remarked, tossing to Henry a ring of keys. “That’s to the cellar. Help yourself-- we’re celebrating, tonight. Wally and Thomas will be in soon, I told them you found something ‘unusual’; but we all thought it was just a Chicago straggler. Not… not a Terragrade.” 

Henry and Bendy were left alone, and Henry locked the door behind Sammy for him, maintaining eye contact with the demon as he did so. The demon seemed to struggle with understanding- he squinted the whole while. Henry pinged Sammy again. 

‘He keeps squinting.’

“I noticed that too. I’ll get him some glasses-- I think it has vision problems.”

Henry blinked. He had hardly thought of that, even with glasses on his own face. Suddenly he was grateful that he did not lose them in the waterfall. 

“What do you say to some food, doll?” he offered enticingly. He shook his head, silvery strands dancing in the air. Henry frowned. He took a book down from the shelf. Terragrades were carnivores, right? Flipping through the demonology book, he found the entry on the species and found his notion confirmed. He smiled, and went to the cellar to grab a meat that he could not quite identify but knew was good and edible-- being that Sammy only had the highest of quality in his home. Henry began cooking it on a simmer, trying to tempt the being, but they only wrinkled their nose and scowled. “Look here, sweetheart, I didn’t catch an endling for it to die on me from starvation.”

“Go to hell,” they hissed again, too polite to say anything worse. Henry rolled his eyes, gathering some of the cooked meat on a fork and grabbing the end of the rope. 

“Come eat,” he commanded, and Bendy was forced to come-- his mouth opening and tears welling. Henry tilted his head and cut the demand from needing to be filled. “Why does this hurt you?”

“I don’t eat meat,” Bendy rasped. Henry stared at him. “I d-don’t care if that’s what I need, I don’t.”

“A vegetarian carnivore,” Henry mused, and gently cupped the demon’s jaw, to check its strength. “How odd… so will you eat berries? Fruits? Fish?”

“Th-those are fine, but I have no appetite,” Bendy replied, eyes closed. Henry smiled, and leaned to his ear to whisper, “Appetite or no, you’re going to eat so that we put some meat on those bones of yours. Running all the time must be so tiring. Aren’t you tired?”

“Because you kept me awake all night, yes,” he snapped back. Henry delighted in his cleverness, and was glad then that he would not be selling him just yet-- he would have to get manners into him first. “The running is enjoyable, until someone gets hurt.”

“No worries, babe,” Henry snorted, twirling the rope. “I’m going to make for you an omelette, and you’re going to eat it.”

The Terragrade gave a whine of discomfort deep from its throat, and curled on itself as it just sat on the floor, waiting for Henry without a choice. 

He always hated seeing his catches like that. He turned away to avoid looking at him, at his miserable and outdoors yearning form. 

Still, he peeked at him every now and then while cooking, and was glad to see that despite his lack of appetite, it still perked up slightly from the smell. It hardly took two minutes to cook, and Henry led it to the dining hall where its lunch awaited, smiling and tapping the bottom of his bearded jowl. 

“You’re going to have to eat sometime,” the hunter informed him needlessly. There was a deep set hatred in those red eyes in response, jaw locked. Henry frowned. He had never dealt with one so very stubborn as this. “Unless you'd like to pass out. Feeding a catch intravenously is something I’ve had to do before, you’d be no different.”

“I want to g-go back.” the demon hissed with an uneasy shiver, teeth clenched as to not allow possibly forcefully fed food to trespass them. It was futile, as Henry grimaced and rolled his eyes, seating him down and holding an arm over his shoulders, leaning to speak in his ear, low and with a touch of anger growling beneath.

“If you don’t eat, you  _ will _ regret it. Now, open up before you make me lose my temper,” he demanded, strong fists flexing and restraining from hurting. Bendy grit his teeth, forming a grinning rictus. Henry’s own expression morphed angrily, and his hand pressed to the demon’s throat. He slowly added pressure, feeling the breathing grow labored, and eventually, he yielded to his need for air and his mouth opened. A bite of omelette was forced on his tongue before he could try to jolt away, its taste pungent and smarting at his pride, making his maws water. He resigned himself to chewing it, but still so terribly stubbornly did not let it get past his palate. The hunter forced his head upwards slowly, pulling at his hair, Henry’s other hand on the bottom of his head, and the traitor that was gravity imposed him to swallow. Bendy’s resolve was outmatched by Henry’s experience, but he tried again anyway. If not out of despair, out of spite.

“No more.”

“Another bite.”

“No more.”

“I said another bite.”

“I'm full-”

“I  _ said _ .”

Their show of tamer and lion repeated.

It ended with Henry gripping onto his bound wrists, glaring into his eyes with a snarl, teeth bared and eyes enraged.

“You will eat the whole thing, or you will not like what I will do to you. You can eat it willingly, or I can feed you just as I have the first bite. I’m sure you don’t want a tube shoved down your throat from your nose now, do you?”

Henry grabbed his kit and forced the demon to stay against the chair, holding his head in place with one hand and going through his materials with the other, pulling out a long, thin coil. Joey could only growl through teeth forced shut, eyes watering and head jerking side to side.

“This is how I’ll feed you if you won’t eat,” he muttered, pressing it to the side of its face so he could feel the smooth plastic. “Do you want it? I don’t have any more anesthetic on me, I used it to stop the pain from my broken arm. So it would hurt, a whole lot. Yes, or no?”

The Terragrade did not catch the lie (Henry’s arm did not hurt an ounce after he had healed it) and shook his head, sadly. Henry nodded and sat down, letting him eat on its own. Watching him choke down the food and continue on without further prompt made him pat its head. “Atta boy.”

Bendy just growled weakly at the remark.

Soon, Sammy returned, with Norman in tow. The veteran hunter had Bendy stand upright and did some measurements and physicality checks. He did not press when he refused to remove his clothes, instead continuing on with some mental evaluations. 

After he completed, he turned to Henry and Sammy, snapping shut a book he was having the demon read from. 

“He’s a Terragrade alright,” he nodded, and then shooed the other two out of the room, though Henry was reluctant to part with it. Norman, once they were alone, kneeled to him where he was seated. Bendy moved away, afraid. Norman smiled at him comfortingly. “Now, don’t be afraid there, son. Tell me now, do you have a name you wouldn't mind me using?”

“You may call me Joey,” he whispered. “Only for now.  _ He _ calls me Bendy.”

“Do you like that name?”

“No.”

“Then may I tell Henry?”

“....” Joey hesitated, and then shook his head. “He doesn’t get to have a name for me.”

“That’s alright,” the ex-hunter soothed. “Do you want to tell me anything that’s bothering you? Henry’s a good man, just a bit of a dick when he gets cocky. I can talk some sense into him. He’s treating you like an animal, you poor kid.”

“I wanna go back to the forest,” he whimpered, curling in and holding himself. Norman frowned sadly, and patted his shoulder. “I wanna go home.”

“I’m sorry, Joey,” he sighed. “I can’t help you there. Maybe you can get a flower from the forest to bring along with you? Henry’s place is a four day walk from here, the climate shouldn’t be too different.”

“He won’t let me.”

“You’d be surprised.”

Joey seemed hesitant, and he looked up at him. 

“Are y-you sure?”

“Aye, I’m sure. It could help with homesickness.”

“It… it could.”

“Yes, it could,” Norman was glad to see a bit of color return to his face. “Now, you’ve got some nasty scars on your wings-- they look like you got them when you were young. Is there a story behind that you’re willing to share?”

“I don’t remember,” he replied, not meeting his gaze. Norman hummed. “I think.”

“Alright,” he responded, standing. “Come along, let’s go to some nicer chairs.”

Henry was shocked to see Joey-- Bendy, to him-- walking along Norman without any struggle. 

“Sometimes you need empathy, Stein,” Norman said to him with a warning edge in his tone. “It’s not good to only use force and demands. They have feelings, and J- Bendy is a sensitive guy. I doubt he would have fixed your arm if he was as cruel as you’ve been.”

“It’s just my job,” Henry defended. Sammy nodded. “Plus I couldn’t let him go after I was after the trail for nearly a week, I can’t go home with nothing and make Eleanor and Linda starve.”

“Eleanor could handle herself and take care of Linda,” Norman replied. Henry did not respond. Norman said nothing more on the subject, and instead asked, “When are the others getting here?”

“Last I saw, Wally was whining that Tom wanted his help to get his tools, so I'd say they're on their way over here by now.” Sammy answered, carefully handing Joey a pair of glasses, swapping them for another pair when the Terragrade shook his head. That continued for a while. “Those pink ones are nice. Ah, and Johnny had some commissions still to be done, so he might be a bit late.”

“Please tell me it’s not Derekson.”

“....”

“Sammy.”

“He made an appointment a few days ago, I can’t cancel on him on such a short notice. But the other Johnny is on his way as well, so that would… alleviate any tension. You know how he is about the demon trading industry, so… it shouldn’t be awful.”

“Oh dear G-d…” Henry rubbed the bridge of his nose. A collector of rarities, swinging by just at the right time to see the last Terragrade on Earth. Magnificent. Just the trouble he needed. And the other Brokenheart who would be advocating against Henry’s catch, vehemently and righteously furious over the unethical binding of an endling. Truly this was his day. “He’s going to try to bargain with me for him. Both of the Johnnys will, for different reasons, but both of them will. I don’t want to lock him away, I need him around, if just to keep an eye on him.”

“It won’t be so bad,” Sammy placated. Henry looked to Norman with a deadpan expression. The elder only shrugged. There were two knocks on the door, and Sammy opened it, receiving twin kisses on his cheeks that made them flush with pink. Tom's head poked in first and Wally’s a little later, both from behind their boyfriend's figure, giving the impression that they were the two faces of a single human chimera. “Hey boys.”

“Why’d ya crash?” Wally complained, holding a single screwdriver. Thomas exhaled with a huff as he set down his tool chest, tapping it and making it expand into a much larger one. “It’s like you do every other hunt.”

“Every four,” Thomas corrected him. Henry placed his waterlogged flight gear in the mechanic's care. He nodded before dragging the damaged mechanism to a different room where he could fix it without bothering anyone. “What did you do, crash into a waterfall? This thing is a mess!”

“Yes, actually,” Henry called in response.

Wally took in the presence of the Terragrade lazily, with unspoilt curiosity. He waved a ‘Hi’ without making a big deal out of its presence. Joey blinked, then waved back shyly, smiling slightly at the friendly casualness. Henry scowled, and when the relieved if puzzled ruby gaze met his anger, those eyes averted to the floor. 

Another quick knock landed on the door and another body entered the room without waiting for an invite. Johnny’s tall horns nearly got stuck in the door frame, although the pathos with which he walked seemed to suggest they would have torn through the wood instead of getting stopped by it. Smirking, he raised his hand in salutations, yet promptly forgot to greet anybody present as his stare fixed on the tall demon bound by the rope. 


	3. Reluctance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> threat of intubation pops up again, also ownership of a sapient being, conversation of inappropriate behavior

Johnny Derekson laughed incredulously, eyes gleaming. 

“Hoo damn, Hen-RY! Look at that!” Johnny all but howled, grinning, as approached the demon, encircling it, but not in the curious way of Sammy from before, in a stalking manner that made Joey feel like he was trying to catch a glimpse of how he looked under the cloak, perhaps like a caged tiger. “Do my eyes deceive me, or have you brought me your crown jewel today? Is that some sort of, uh, demon breeded to look like a Terragrade?”

“Breeded?” Joey echoed, face paling. 

“No, it’s a real Terragrade,” Henry rumbled. “And it’s not for sale, either.”

“Oh, Henry, you can't say that to me.” the collector replied, with a genial yet carnivorous smile flashing perilously close to Joey. He took out his wallet, jingling coins. “Come on now, we both know I've just _got_ to have this beauty all for myself, hm? How much for it, fifteen hundred thousand? Fifty hundred?”

Henry’s mouth went dry. Johnny had bought from him before, and he always paid higher than others. But this? This was already much greater than he was even calculating. Johnny took his silence for denial, and rose a brow.

“Look here, Stein, I’ll give you six billion bulliots,” he said lowly. Sammy’s jaw dropped for the second time that day. “I _need_ something like that in my collection. Maybe I won’t even put it in a program. If it's still too low you can name a price, any price, but you have to give it to me - Henry, look at that beauty, I’ve gotta have it. I’d let you stop by and visit it whenever you’d want, free of charge if you want, but, damn, _sell it to me_.”

The hunter swallowed.

Six billion. Dear goodness, the man was insane. Six billion! Not even the richest person in the world would have spent such a catastrophic amount on only one single thing, no matter how rare - and not even exploit its uniqueness to gain any of the money spent back! He was willing to let him get a glimpse of this gorgeous creature, last of its magnificent species, without even paying a quarter of a penny! He glanced at the Terragrade: he was perfectly still, wrapped tight in the cloak and moved only by a nearly imperceptible tremor. His lips were pursed, eyes widened, every last muscle tensed in genuine terror. He could feel in his trembling irises the certainty of an unbearable life awaiting him if Henry had carelessly, avidly allowed the rope binding him to slip from his palm to Johnny's to seal a deal and his fate. He could tell the thought of being even only grazed by the collector's touch would have been to the demon akin to having a bullet fired into his leg from a gun directly attached to the side of his face.

Six billion.

And he could have even asked for more.

Six billion.

“It's not for sale.”

Johnny's frown deepened, eyes turning harsher: “Don't make this difficult, Stein-”

“You're the one making this difficult.”Henry cut him off firmly.” I've told you clearly: not for sale. If you want one so much, start counting your blessings before going to sleep, and maybe you'll get lucky enough to find another one day.”

“I've told you, name a price--”

“And I've told you, not for sale.”

“Ten, no, _twelve billion._ And I won’t put it in a breeding program. I know you don’t like those,” Johnny stepped towards him. “I’d let you rent it out.”

Henry normally disliked when Doe showed up, but right then, he was glad, because he did not know how much longer he could hold out, with even Sammy’s mouth watering at the ludacris price.

“Rent what out?”

Johnny turned to face Johnny.

“Henry here caught a Terragrade that he won’t sell to me,” Derekson sneered. 

Seeking an ally in the other Brokenheart perhaps had not been the smartest move on Derekson's part when the subject was that of him desiring ownership over another sapient living being. However, the mention of the species of said being proved to be a good enough distraction for the other antlered being from his deplorable intentions.

“A Terragrade?” Johnny Doe asked, eyes wide and shining, and then he spun to face Joey, gently taking one of his hands. “Oh, you poor dear. It must have been very stressful being out there all alone. Damn hunters and their awful practices. You’re very pretty, darling. Do you have a name that you don’t mind if I call you?”

He was about to speak when Henry cut him off, “I call him Bendy.”

“I did not ask you.” Doe remarked calmly, small lips pursing. His grip tightened gently around the Terragrade's palms, and Joey was very grateful for his presence, leaning toward him. In great secret he whispered the name in Johnny's ear. “That’s a good name.”

Henry scowled, but Johnny Doe’s kindness would be better than Johnny Derekson’s predation. 

Joey continued to whisper to him, hands shaking, telling him things that Henry wished he could hear. Sammy continued into the kitchen, smiling a bit. Thomas came in, wiping grease from his hands. 

“So, Doe, Derekson, Polk,” he surveyed the experts. “Is that really a Terragrade? Should I get my shotgun to blow its brains out?”

Doe shot him a glare that could have killed him on the spot while still managing to instill the most absolute of pains into him mere seconds before he would have fallen dead. Tom smacked his lips, noted that the other two also showed him generally negative responses and made a mental note that maybe that was not a good ice breaker.

“Look, all I care about is the fact that that thing is dangerous,” he pointed out. “Don’t forget only one of them managed to kill over ten thousand people single handedly.”

“Oh, please, that one wouldn’t hurt a fly,” Derekson scoffed, touching a strand of the demon’s hair, making him whimper. “It can’t even try to.”

“How would you know?”

“Look at his demeanor,” the collector proffered, waving over him. “Look at how it presents itself, at how it reacts to our words and actions . You really think a proud, natural born killer would behave like a scared pup?”

“Pups can grow up to be wolves,” Thomas reminded. “And cubs can be more dangerous than lions.”

“Not this one.” Derekson shook his head with a smirk that made Joey’s skin crawl, “This one is growing up to be an obedient little lap dog. Not little, but you know my point.”

“He,” Doe interrupted, eyes narrowed into slithers, “Will _not_ be your pet. I sure as hell will not allow that to happen, now or ever.”

“I don’t want a _pet_ ,” Johnny reminded. “You don’t sleep with pets, that’s nasty. But you can sleep with your servants.”

“It’s nasty to do that with servants too!” Doe snapped back. “Especially ones that clearly don’t want to be with you!” 

“Oh, I'll make it want me. Or maybe I won't… it's not like it matters much in the end.” 

“That's enough.” Norman cut short, noticing the horrified discomfort with which Joey had begun shivering so very harshly, “Henry's told you already, there's nothing you can buy here. So either you leave with your own two legs, or we make you leave.” his voice lowered in a growl: “If necessary, with all your bones ground to dust.”

Derekson's face grew livid.

“I _want_ it.” he snarled.

The ex-hunter's broad hand grasped his shoulder: “And you can't have it.”

The man shoved Norman's palm off of him with a barely contained fury. He shot one last burning look to the object of his desires (and the Terragrade could feel his skin being branded with scalding iron) still protected by Johnny and Norman, who glared at him. He sighed, and turned back to Sammy.

“Ah, well. We still have our own discussion at hand-- the three girls I’ve got who want music lessons. How much for their classes? One is a banshee, another is a siren, and the third is a yokai. Be careful with her, she likes to prank.”

“Well, you know my normal rate for inhuman beings,” Sammy stiffly replied. Johnny nodded, and pulled out the proper amount of money, adding in extra, keeping his eye on Henry. The hunter did his absolute best to remain unreadable, but his eyes flashed from the gold to Bendy, and back again. Though Derekson did not notice the brief flick, the demon did, and he closed his ruby red eyes to hide their terrified pleading.

“Is that all?” Sammy asked coldly after receiving his pay. Johnny cast one last glance to the extraordinary demon, tilting his head, hand twitching. The Terragrade swallowed, not breaking eye contact, taking in the whole of the man to see the best way to escape the Brokenheart’s iron grasp if he would fall into it.

“Is it?” he asked, eyes on Henry. Henry looked back with ice. Derekson forced himself to say, the corner of his mouth twisted with bitterness, “Yes, that is all.”

The air seemed to swell with oxygen as the collector finally slammed the door behind his back to signal his disappointment in his departure. Joey filled his lungs with it repeatedly, reveling in its newfound purity, trying to quell the shaking of his hands and the watering of his eyes. Johnny Doe's long fingers wrapped comfortingly around two of his many palms to offer him some kind of solace in the knowledge of the Brokenheart's support. Henry looked away. 

“Stein.”

He sighed deeply. He could feel Johnny's sharp eyes on his back.

“Not now, Doe.”

“You must let him go.”

“Absolutely not.”

“ _Henry_.”

“I've spent five days hunting him!” he snapped, involuntarily yanking on the rope, drawing him from Johnny’s caring grasp. “I'm not letting almost a whole week of work go to shit like that! I made up my mind, I’m keeping it!”

“We just managed to drive off--”

“I'm not Derekson! _He_ didn't work his ass off to catch him, _I_ did! I broke my goddamn arm for him!” Henry felt his temper rise, pulling the rope again, hardly noticing the whimper of pain from his catch. “And if I'm not gonna get twelve _billion or_ **_more_ ** builliots out of this, then I'll at the very least keep what I worked so hard to get! And if you’re so worried about it, then you can rest assured that I’m not going to rent it out to the first one who comes around.”

“You’re going to turn him into some sort of toy!” 

“And what of it? I've got mouths to feed, what should I do, let Eleanor and Linda starve? I'll have to make some revenue somehow!”

“But not at his expense!”

“It cost me five days! _Five days!_ I could have gotten _five hunts_ done in that time! You want me to just let five days worth of pay go straight into the trash!” Henry stomped towards the door, harshly snatching his flight gear from Thomas' confused hands and dragging Joey with him, “None of you get to tell me what the hell I get to do with it! I'll provide for my family in any way I see fit!”

Joey stumbled into the street trying to keep up with the hunter's furious gait across the streets, being dragged away from warmth and help into an unknown life as a jester for a constantly shifting audience, paying only to see him, over and over and over and over, stripping him of any dignity that was his right to have as a sentient sapient being.

Henry dragged him away, outside of urban borders; he dragged him away into the chill of the forest that stretched between them and the long, long, long way home.

“Shit!” he cursed once they were out of sight of the city. “Shit! Fucking shit!”

“What’s wrong?” Bendy asked with sudden alarm and concern. He might not have liked the man, but his discomfort stirred something in him. Compassion, maybe. Curiosity. A sneaky, quiet, irreverent schadenfreude-- and he was _good_. His lineage did not define him. “Henry, what--”

“I was hoping to get some good fucking rest tonight in a real damn bed!”

“I… um, what’s a bed?” the Terragrade asked, confused and put on the spot. “I’d… accommodate for it if I could, um, know what it is?”

Henry turned to him, mouth open as he panted his frustration out in a moment of stupor. 

“Where the hell have you been sleeping?”

“I… the… the ground? Under the stars,” Joey looked up. A storm was rolling in. He shifted. “In caves. Is it not common to sleep upon the floor?”

Henry tilted his head. “I'm accustomed to that.” he admitted, “But I know there's better places to lay on rather than cold ground. And Sammy was going to have me for tonight.”

“We… if your pride could h-handle it--”

“My pride can handle anything.”

“Well, in that case, we could return right before their doorstep in a moment.”

Henry snorted. 

“Yeah, right, we’ve already gone two hours,” he reminded. “And _someone_ doesn’t have wings.”

“There are other ways of speed.” the demon murmured. Intrigued, Henry stepped to him. 

“Then show me.”

Henry blinked as they emerged from the catacombs, the sudden light from the moon and streetlamps imprinting in his retinas, and soon he was able to see they were before Sammy’s door. Bendy’s underground path had taken them hardly any time compared to their march out of the city, and Henry had to admit that he had no idea the cave system was connected to the tunnels under the town. 

“Good job,” he remarked, looking around. He noted that Joey had brought them right in front of Sammy’s home -- but across was a tavern. 

Temptation gripped him. He did not want to apologize to the other men. What he could do was take the demon into the hostel and sell glimpses-- not only would that fill his pockets with coins, but his pride would remain intact. The Terragrade seemed to notice, or perhaps sense, his split, and looked away in pain. Henry licked his lips, gazed at the demon, and then let his heart soften just enough to knock on the door, making those pointed ears perk. 

“Henry! We thought you’d be halfway across the continent by now!” Sammy exclaimed, making Henry smile wryly, “Oh, I was. But this fella’s got some tricks up his sleeves.”

“That’s… amazing,” Sammy smiled. “Come in, come in, we’ve still got hot food and warm blankets. Susie and Allison are positively wonderful workers and assistants. Not only can they hit every note, they also cook!”

“And lord knows you need that,” Henry muttered, then cleared his throat awkwardly. “So, uh. Sorry. About storming off.”

“It’s nothing, Henry,” Sammy shrugged, and it was followed by a chorus of agreement from behind in the dining hall. “Your regular meal is on the table. So, Terragrade-- Bendy. What do you eat?”

“Not hungry.”

Henry glared at him. 

“You’re going to eat, or I will intubate you,” he half threatened, half reminded. Joey stood his ground, this time, and Henry knocked him to the floor. Only Johnny called out in dismay, Norman only shaking his head. “Bendy. Either you eat. Or I will intubate you.”

Joey spat into his face.

The table went quiet. 

“Goddamn you!” Henry barked, frightening him even more. He grabbed him by his jaw again, pressing into soft skin that had already been bruised that day. He grasped his intubation kit again, seething. “Are you going to eat or am I going to have to knock you out and _then_ intubate you!?”

“He’ll eat, he’ll eat!” Johnny cried for him, reaching to pull Henry off of him. “Please, you’re scaring him to bits and pieces, no wonder he’s not hungry!”

“You deal with him, then.” Henry grumbled, going to stuff his things away and slumping in his own seat, hardly registering that it had been a full day. Henry watched with no small amount of frustration as Doe easily got the demon to sit beside him and gave him a bowl of hot mashed potatoes. To Henry’s displeasure, Bendy, eager to please the Brokenheart, ate without a single foul word. It even let him touch its face, leaning in to the gentle caress and blushingly smiling at the praise he gave it, touching his hand in return to hold it in place. Henry drew the line when his demon turned his head and hand to press his lips to Johnny’s wrist in gratitude, the hunter standing and snapping to get its attention. The demon’s hands dropped into its lap, eyes following and becoming still and motionless. “If you’re done eating, Bendy, then we can go to bed.”

Nodding, they rose from where they sat, and Henry led them into the guest room he would be staying in that night. 

“This is a bed,” he said, pointing at the mattress. Joey poked it curiously.

Are you not afraid it will eat you?” he asked politely.

“Pff, no,” Henry rolled his eyes, beginning to strip to his underclothes. The demon averted his eyes out of fluster and respect, and some minor worry. Henry touched his shoulder, making him jolt slightly. “Get out of your travel clothes.”

“I… only have one s-set of attire.”

“Then get to your underwear,” Henry instructed. The Terragrade hesitantly removed its tunic and trousers, revealing another set of each-- but clearly more worn and meant for everyday use. Henry gave a brisk nod of approval, and then got onto the bed, patting it. It felt a little strange-- normally he would have his charges on Sammy’s couch-- but this one had never seen a bed. If he was going to keep it, then it might as well learn. “Get in.”

“I’d rather n-not….”

“You need to sleep. Get on the bed.”

“I can sleep on the floo-”

“Bed. Now.”

They lowered onto the bed cautiously. Henry pulled him all the way on, lifting the blanket over their legs and pushing him down to lay back. 

“Relax,” Henry told him. He swallowed, shifting, unable to find a comfortable way to rest.

“I, I can’t,” he whined, shaking. “I-”

“Shh,” Henry put a finger over his lips. “Close your eyes. Good. Let your shoulders loose. That’s right. Don’t flinch.”

He flinched when Henry touched him anyways. 

“Relax, doll,” he chided. He slid him into his arms. Might as well get it comfortable if he was going to force it to be in the bed. Condition it to like it, maybe? He shook that thought away, it too reminiscent of that foul Brokenheart. Joey lifted his head in response to Henry’s sudden miasma, and Henry shook his head. “It’s nothing.”

“I-I, I could really sleep on the floor,” the Terragrade restated politely. A broad palm gently brushed his cheek, making him shiver slightly as Henry spoke once more: “You will do no such thing. Not while you are under me.”

“I am not beneath anyone nor anything,” Joey growled, raising from the cushions. “You cannot take my sapience from me.”

“I’m not trying to,” Henry insisted. “But there’s a hierarchy, sweetheart. And you’re under me within it.”

“No, I’m not,” he retorted, trying to get out of the bed once more, and Henry took it upon himself to pull him back and push his back onto the mattress. Due to their brief power struggle that Henry ultimately won, Henry found himself straddling the demon, pinning all of its wrists to a panting chest, and he grinned ferally at the blush that spread over its face. “Get off of me.”

“Now you’re beneath me in more ways than one,” Henry pointed out, smirking. He racked his eyes along the demon. Most demons were known to have highly sensual forms, if not all. This one was no different in that sense, though he was less risqué, far more beautiful and soft in an exotic, long way. Henry found he rather liked it. It would be, as Wally would say, a perk to his new servant. Likely he would turn out a good listener, and having such a coquettish body would be a nice feature. Smiling, he looked into Bendy’s eyes. “You’re mine, and I tell you to relax. We’ve had a long day, babe.”

Henry laid down, pulling Joey to hold his back to Henry’s chest. 

“Comfy?”

“....”

“Heh. You’re cute when you’re all pouty.”

“Go to hell.”

“I will,” Henry promised with a smile against the base of Joey’s neck. “If that's where I could find you, I’d dive right in.”

Bendy sank along Henry’s chest, hiding in the blanket. Henry noted that he was placing his head near his heart. He allowed him to turn to press his ear to the beat.

“You like that?”

Henry got no answer. Joey was already asleep.


	4. Farewell

When Henry arose, he was the only one in the bed. Bendy was standing by the window, already dressed and cloaked, sunlight streaming up past him, the hazy deep orange of the sunrise. Henry watched him for some time, marveling at the picturesque figure before him. 

What a catch.

He gently smiled, rising to touch a hand to his side, and though he stiffened, Henry followed along the limb to wrap around his middle, the lowest set of arms folded over the demon’s stomach. 

“Isn’t it a bit early to be up?” Henry murmured into his back. “Though you do look quite nice with the morning light all aglow around you. Want to set out?”

“I want to be let out,” Joey breathed hollowly. Henry blinked with surprise. His voice sounded hoarse and raw. He pulled him back from the window gently, looking up to inspect his face. Sure enough, those cheeks were scrubbed red from scratching at tears, eyes exhausted and anguished. He did not look at Henry. He could not bear to see the man who stole his freedom. “I want to go home. When will you let me g-go home?”

“You’re going to get a new home,” Henry assured him with a smiling tone. Bendy just shook his head sadly.

“It won’t be home,” he whispered. “It would be prison.”

“It will become home.” Henry promised through offer, but there was no room for debate in his voice. Bendy's shoulders slumped and curled inwards slightly, and his ruby eyes fixed hopelessly on the window, looking out to the trees beyond the city. He moved without fighting as the hunter tugged him towards himself after getting dressed, exiting the room without a word. Henry thanked Sammy's hospitality with a few quick words; he nodded a good morning in Norman's direction and carefully evaded any possibility of a confrontation with Johnny-- either of them-- sparing him the quickest greeting possible as he left with his prey if he were to cross him. Johnny tried to stop them in vain. Whatever words the Brokenheart could have had for him fell deaf against the door as it closed behind the Terragrade.

“Now then, Bendy boy,” Henry turned to the tall demon with half a grin, “The road is long, but I know you can give a heads up at least. Does that little shortcut of yours work both ways?”

Joey tilted his head slightly: “Let's find out.”

If somebody had told Henry there was a way to get from the city to the depths of the forest (and vice versa) in about fifteen minutes, he might have laughed, because that could not have been possible. Emerging from the cave into the bowels of the woods reminded him that it was, indeed, something not so far fetched.

Still, there would be at least two, three more days of walking before either he or his catch would be able to rest on warm beds once again.

He tugged lightly at the rope to entice Joey to follow, and they began their slow journey home.

Joey tried to keep up with him, but the rope between his ankles made for him tripping at random, unable to maintain his balance with his arms tied, and Henry had to lift him from the dew dropped ground more than once. It started to rain, as Henry noted it might the day before, and the water of heaven mixed with the tears that made small paths down dark skin. Henry did not like how his heart panged with some measure of sympathy, and he kept his eyes along the forest road instead. 

“Mr. Polk said y-you might allow me to take a keepsake from my home,” Bendy remarked some time during the absolute silence between them, his voice almost buried under the pitter patter of rain. Henry did not answer outright, and only made a hum of question. “C-could… perhaps you’d be okay if I brought one of m-my rose bushes?”

A rose bush? He tried to picture it outside the house. He tried imagining blooming red petals being tended by innumerable arms, gentle fingers sliding carefully through the thorns as a voice sang in various languages he could not understand too well.

“Mm,” he bought time by tilting his head and looking up. “How far out of our way would it be?”

“Oh! Uh, not at all!” the demon said, in a tone that made Henry realize that he was not expecting concession or even audience. “It is close, really close - b-basically along our current path.”

“I see… If that’s the case, I suppose it wouldn’t be too much trouble. But, pray tell,” he smiled just a tad, confused and humoring him, “How would you transport it?”

“In a sling, as I take the stalks in w-winter,” he replied. “The moisture of the cloth keeps the roots warm and alive, and each y-year I pray they take and blossom where they lay.”

“You will be able to take one bush,” Henry informed him, slackening the rope to allow his demon to go before him. “No more.”

“P-please, just two, in case one does not survive…”

Henry looked into those red eyes and stood silent, pondering a little longer, his face not betraying any kind of emotion.

“Are you defying me?”

“No, no sir, I merely w-worry,” Bendy’s panic normally would have amused him from any other creature he captured, but a part of him reminded that this was  _ his _ demon now. He did not want to be a torturous master. 

“Small ones, then. If they’re small enough, do three.”

The way its ears perked in pure joy made it hard not to smile.

“Thank you,” they said in absolute gratitude. “Thank you….”

Henry felt a small part of him murmur he did not deserve his thanks.

As the being said, the path to a small oasis was not distant. 

It was shocking to see those beauticious lilies, calming lilacs, the petals of tulips, carefully cultivated vines, and roses far more stunning than any he had seen before in his life. Henry could only describe it as breathtaking, a heaven on earth, rain trickling down petals like brilliant new pearls from a chain of oysters. 

The Terragrade moved through the vegetation as if he were part of it, fingertips grazing the quiet blooming lives he had grown and now would never see again. A set of claws dug in the soft soil beneath two of the smallest thorny bushes he could find, careful not to disturb the flowers blissfully blind to all that was around them except for the effect of their beauty. He looked at Henry, hopeful, waiting for a signal of confirmation, of agreement; the hunter considered the size of the two bushes, and with a nod allowed him to dig up a third one of roughly equal measure. Henry leaned against a lemon tree, watching as the demon took off his cloak, dipping it into a stream that was clearly directed by his own hand, and wrapped the bottom of the bushes in the most wet part, the leaves in drier sectors. A thorn scratched his wrist, and a thought of what to do in the extreme situation that he feared the most was realized, though he made no mention of it, and slowly buried it under a blanket of innocuous reflections. Henry tugged the rope once he noticed Joey had frozen.

“What’s the matter?” he questioned.

“I have n-no way to tie it about myself.”

Henry smirked, and pulled another length of rope from his belt, then carefully tied it about Bendy’s chest and took the satchel, knotting it onto his back. 

“There you go.”

“Thank you….”

“See, ropes aren’t all that bad,” Henry remarked. Joey seemed dizzy and a bit sick. 

He looked over to his garden, nausea blooming.

He did not want to say goodbye. Goodbye was too final. Too cruel.

Bendy knelt, and wet the ground with his tears, murmuring a prayer that the salty drops would sustain them. He stood, head spinning. 

“Farewell, all of you,” he whispered. “Farewell, and grow strong and long; mint, please do not wage war against raspberry, you know they are stubborn; lilypad, provide for the frogs and little fish; roses, defend your home with terrible beauty and thorn. I thank you all, and farewell.”

He stumbled back into the unknown path with his cager, carrying only three of his darlings with him, gaze fixed on his garden as if to burn the picture into his mind. He turned away only miles away, when he was sure that not even the redwoods could be seen above the other trees of the forest.

He cried quietly, without shaking his chest with hiccups. He did not have the strength for that. Joey’s mind was far away, vision crossing with the present of being bound and the past of freedom-- terrifying freedom, but these knots were what frightened him; so, he resigned himself to his fate and wept. 


	5. Water Dripping

The rain had slowly become thinner to the point of being merely a drizzle now, but the chill was doubling down on them. It bit at their ankles and elbows, and grew exponentially the more the humidity permeated the air. A thick fog was rising from the soil like a gravity defying curtain, hindering the sight with a neverending sprawl of white and grey that looked like it could only be traversed with the aid of a machete. Yet the whole while, Joey leaned over Henry like a tree, shielding him from the wind and pressures that surrounded them as he shivered.

“There’s a pub nearby,” Henry gruffly remarked, pointing in the general direction. “We can stop there and warm up. Maybe we’d better stay the night there. I don’t think we’re going to cover much more road in these conditions.”

Bendy nodded without a word. The clattering of his sharp teeth would have covered any word he attempted to say.

The hunter gently steered him in the direction of what he hoped would have been a warm room.

They walked, and walked, and walked. It felt like they were not making any progress to reach the fireplace haven as the night inched ever closer to them; it was very likely that was exactly what was happening. Like ships out at sea desperate for a lighthouse as to not to get stranded on unforgiving rocky coasts, they treaded cautiously.

A light flickered among the darkening branches. They walked towards it, Henry especially hopeful, Joey especially dreading, moths drawn to the deadly flame. As they approached, the little ember’s form became clearer and clearer; its shape resembled, rather grimly, the shin of a dead man. At its lower end was attached a hand, and to that hamd what appeared to be a strange man. They sat, clad in black, a hat on their head and eyes wide and shimmering like those of an owl focused intently on the two of them.

“Pa’ chi è ‘a notte?” it cried out.

Henry sighed in relief: “Pa’ mi, pa’ ti, pa’ tutti chelli chi camminan ne ‘a notte.” he responded.

The Strego fell off the branch they sat on as if thrown off it by the snap of an elastic band. They extended their hand out to him, and he shook it vigorously: “Good evening to you, Master Stein.” they said with an accent that pronounced each and every one of their vowels clearly, “What might you be doing out at this hour?”

“Enjoying the weather,” Henry laughed, “Nah, but really, this drizzle is driving me mad. My catch and I need to unsoak these bones as soon as possible, and normally I’d settle for a cave or alcove, but this damned fog….”

“Eh! I've seen worse.” the creature shrugged. Their eyes lingered on Joey, pupils blinking curiously at him. The Terragrade blinked back, and the Strego made nothing of him, turning to the hunter once again: “Follow me! I'll get you somewhere you can rest your legs and dry up nicely.”

“You are a blessing, Solipsista.”

The peculiar being did not answer, but turned their heels and held out their ember-shin, its light cutting through the fog.

“How is Shawn?” 

“Same old, same old, still making hundreds of gifts for his lover,” Solipsista replied. “He's going insane with finding something new every hour of every day, and when he's not thinking about that he's slacking off and painting dolls for his girls.”

“Sounds like Shawn,” Henry muttered. Joey shrank back as he saw the resting locale. It was completely ordinary for a bar far from home and during a rain-- which was to say, very full, and extremely loud. Which could only mean many eyes on him. His hands clutched a little anxiously the ropes tying the coat turned rose bush sling on his back, wishing it could have been covering him at that very moment. Four of his arms slipped into his shirt, warming himself. Henry glanced at him. “Don’t worry, doll, I’ll get you all warmed up.”

“I am a little surprised that you did not sell this one while you were in the city,” Solipsista remarked almost casually. Bendy froze. “You tend to organize your catches for sale immediately so as to refrain from attachment. The last time you took a charge longer than two days was with  _ her _ \--” Henry choked on his spit, but the Strego went on, “-- is this one too feral to sell at the moment?”

“Uh, huh, uhm, hm, no, he’s rather good mannered,” the hunter managed to get out as he collected himself, “No, I mean, yes, it‘s just-- well, it’s a rare kind, you know? Better for, uh, renting it out maybe. I’ve been thinking it could be a little more, uh, lucrative that way, y'know, steady income all week, possibly, so fewer hunts and all...”

Scolipsista clicked their tongue as if to say 'ah…’. Henry avoided meeting Bendy's gaze.

“Sammy said not to sell.” Henry added. He looked around and lowered his voice, even though he could not see anyone. “You  _ do _ know what it is, right?”

The creature hummed: “I've got half a mind and an idea. But that can't be right, now can it?”

“Norman says it is,” Henry beamed, and then clarified. “Norman’s caught hundreds, maybe thousands of them, especially during the rebellion. You can trust him if he says it is.”

The Strego hummed again. Their pupils closed - or at least gave the appearance of doing so, squishing into horizontal lines as they pondered on his words, deep in thought.

“I'm pretty glad you did not sell him, then,” he mused with a whisper, the glow coming from the tavern's windows slowly gaining brightness as they walked towards it and the merry cries within it rising in volume with the trio's every step. “Or I would have never gotten to see one in real life.”

“So, you think this is the very last one?”

“Oh, goodness, Master Stein,” Solipsista grinned much too widely and a little bitterly, “We Streghi, if there's even just more than four of us lonely cats still, we know a thing or two about endlings.”

Henry did not contradict them.

The Terragrade said nothing, only curled further into himself in fear. 

The bar welcomed them with cheers, Shawn standing behind the counter and pouring dark beer for a pair of women who seemed more interested in each other than their drinks. 

“Aye, Solipsista!” he cried out, his smile reaching all the way up to his ears, “Ye brought me a gorgeous blonde tonight, didn't ya?”

“If your husband heard you, you'd be sleeping on the couch!”

“That’s what ye think, but I know better! He’d sit back and watch!”

Henry found himself choking on air again from the reminder of lovers. He could see the demon’s ears darken considerably. Shawn leaned across the bar, smirking like the devil, and pulled Henry forward by his shoulder. 

“So how about you give me a quick kiss, blondie?” he teased, pursing his lips and struggling with all his strength not to laugh. “It’s been a while since you did.”

“It’s been a while since we’ve been together, too,” Henry re-informed him, adjusting his shirt from where Shawn had displaced it. “But for old time’s sake… plus, I’m in a rather good mood.”

Henry pressed a small kiss to Shawn’s cheek.

“Aye, yes, thank ya,” Shawn beamed. “Exactly what the doctor ordered.”

“You’re not a doctor.”

“Neither are ya _ nd what the fuck is that!” _

Henry, grinning broadly, leaned over the table, and muttered, “It’s a Terragrade.”

“A Terra--!”

“Keep it down!” Henry hissed, slapping a hand over Shawn’s mouth. Shawn nodded, and looked at Joey with awe. 

“Can he sing?”

“Well, I reckon it can,” Henry replied, a bit surprised by the question. “Why?”

“My singer wasn’t able to get here t’night, cause of the rain,” Shawn explained. “Now, I don’t blame him, but I do need some entertainment for the night. The patrons get… rowdy, otherwise.”

Henry side eyed the demon, who was trying to make himself as inconspicuous as possible, and not doing well due to his height, hair color, and figure. Henry decided that since it already was seen by nearly the entire bar, there would be no problems with allowing it to sing. 

“How much?” he asked, much to Joey’s terror. “Do I pay you and keep what the people give?”

“Nah, I pay you, and you give me a cut of the folk’s payment,” Shawn responded. “How does forty bulliots sound? An’ a cut of, hm, eighty-twenty, majority to you.”

Henry pondered. On one hand, forty bulliots was not a lot. On the other, the people here came with full pockets and empty heads. People handed coins to ladies with a wink and filthy looks and proceeded to promptly fall asleep face down as soon as the money had left their palm, or paid for a drink that they never drank for one reason or another, the most populars being that they were too drunk to even realize they had bought it or that somebody had broken it over their head in a scuffle.

“Fifty,” he bargained. 

“Forty four and six silvets.”

“Forty seven and two silvets.”

“Deal.”

Joey felt his heart sink down into his stomach. 

How could he sing in front of so many strangers, with such a heavy heart?

Henry turned to him with a high head, slipping gold into his pocket. 

“Okay then, Bendy,” he remarked with a happy tone in his voice. “Hop on over to that stage there and get to work.” 

“S-sir, what should I sing?” he asked, hoping for some direction. 

To his discomfit, Henry shrugged: “Anything you know will do.”

“Aye, the fellas here like it saucy,” Shawn sniggered. Joey flushed. “And the ladies like it bouncy. Mix ‘em up, and end the night slow.”

“When will that be?” Joey inquired, the nights of bad sleep or no sleep catching up to his body.

“When everybody'll be either asleep, too shitfaced to notice anything, or stone cold dead on the floor from alcohol poisoning.” Shawn informed him, glancing at his watch. “That’s usually ‘round three in the morning. So you’ve got… six hours to keep all those folk entertained. Get to it now, or I’ll make Henry here give back some of that cash.”

“Go.” Henry told him, turning back to Shawn, uncoiling another length of the rope to allow for him to reach the stage. 

Bendy, in his fluster, made his way to the stage, feeling strangely lightheaded. Already more eyes were on him than before. Cautiously, carefully, he sat down, the rope binding him to Henry trailing on the floor, and if he followed it with his eyes, he could see the man drinking away without a single care in the world. 

Eyes were on him.

He swallowed, and then began singing, starting with a melody that was bouncy and flowed, the bar’s conversation growing a little quieter to hear. After that first song, he flushed with the applause, and registered that by his feet there was a small pile of money. Henry gave him a thumbs up, and motioned for him to continue singing. Swallowing, he filled his lungs once more, and this time was aware of those who tossed bronze, silver, and rarely gold. The more they tossed, the more drunk they seemed, though there were some who kept their eyes fixated on him, or followed the rope to Henry, some even going over to the man to haggle with him. 

“Wave those arms, kitty!” someone called, and there was a resounding agreement from the surrounding vocales. He glanced, as he stuttered in fluster, at Henry-- in hopes he would allow him to remain still, but Henry signaled him to appease the crowd. Shawn pointed at musical instruments behind the stage. Joey nervously rose and plucked a violin and a harp, playing both simultaneously, his remaining arms staying clasped and still. Henry sipped another drink, his smile fading away as he listened to his demon sing. 

Bendy’s voice was sonorous and merged harmoniously with the string instruments. He sang in a language no one understood, perhaps it was gibberish, but the tones and inflections were beautiful nonetheless. Rarely had Henry seen such skill, maybe once or twice at Sammy’s concert hall. Wondering how he could reward his Terragrade that night, he felt the warmth of the alcohol in his lungs, stomach, and head, and decided that it would be better for them both to pick tomorrow. Extending the rope to its maximum, he got from Shawn a key on the house, and went to a room not too far from the stage. The singing beyond the door was a lovely lull to sleep, he thought. 

He woke a few hours later. There was still that voice outside his room, and he smiled. Bendy was able to go for long periods of time-- that was good. Henry stretched and got up from the bed he rested on, his head spinning a little from the aftereffect of the alcohol he had imbibed. He stepped out and leaned in the doorway with folded arms, watching his demon sing. His instruments had changed in the hours that had passed, and he seemed to be walking on a floor of broken glass. At least, that’s what Henry thought, until he rubbed his eyes with two fingers, and was dazzled by the coins littering the ground by Bendy’s feet. Eyes trailed up the curved figure, and the sleep in his limbs drained away through his feet. He smirked, realizing a way to get even more money. He drew the rope around himself, drawing his demon closer. These people wanted a show; and he could provide that. 

Bendy’s gasp barely took a moment from his singing as he was drawn close to the shorter man. People whistled at the display of licentious dance that Henry pulled the demon into, and he could not help but love the sound of clinking coins to his feet. The watchers did not notice Joey’s discomfort, nor the perturb that crossed his face when Henry’s hands trailed down his sides, the voyeuristic stares of the bargoers hard to ignore. He knew that Henry was merely obtaining a bit more revenue, but when he glanced at his earthy eyes, he saw a flash of prurience which made his skin feel a bit too loose on his body. His vision doubled in his tiredness, and he nearly tripped, but Henry’s hands kept him standing, letting him flow into a dip. That action gained another round of tinkling coins, and Henry murmured in Joey’s ear; “Keep it up. You’re doing so well.”

Had he thought he had fallen on purpose?

Joey did not particularly want to find out. 

The night wore on, and singing soon became a laborious task on Joey’s lungs. Most people were on the verge of falling asleep, even Shawn had already given up his post to his friend the Strego to go rest. Henry returned to a seat, simply watching the demon’s performance without motion or statement. So, he decided to contribute his last song to the rest that all beings need. He picked up the jew’s harp once more, and strummed a melody, contriving words in his head before singing. 

“Still your mind, rest your soul,” he intoned in tune, “For these roads wind, and take a toll….”

Henry was mesmerized by the expert way Bendy handled his instrument. The way his eyes were partially closed, how he swayed ever so slightly where he sat, the soft and handsome curve of his cheeks, outlined by the glow from the dying flames in the hearth. His stemma must have been a most gorgeous strain, or perhaps he would be considered even by them a pulchritudinous sight. To Henry, he was irresistibly tantalizing, and he did not even know his name. It was a little ridiculous, he thought to himself, what would Eleanor say? If Bendy would like him, that would be another story, but the demon despised the man for ripping him away from his freedom, his home. Henry shifted, a tad discomforted by his own reflections. He gleaned from the clock that it was a quarter past three, and he stood sharply, and requested Joey pick up all the coins sorted by type, giving him three medium satchels. 

“I’ll meet you in the room when you are done,” he told him, and retired to it. Henry’s stomach tightened with the thought of staying in the same bed as the Terragrade again, and this one was much smaller than the one at Sammy’s home. Still, Bendy seemed to have liked it, despite not saying so. His heart skipped a beat and he bit his lower lip, feeling a bit too warm. Too soon and too late all the same, his demon came in, nearly silently depositing the three bags in a corner.

“Come here,” Henry murmured. He came. “Lay down.”

“This… this b-bed is small,” Joey said Henry’s previous thought aloud. “I think it would be best if I slept on the floor.”

“Haven’t you ever heard of spooning?” Henry asked, trying to stifle his anticipation with an aura of nonchalance. Bendy shook his head as Henry removed the satchel of roses from him. “Get into the bed, sweetheart.”

Joey tried his best, and Henry maneuvered so that Joey was pressed to the wall for a moment, and then pulled his body flush to his own, adoring the little gasp from him. He ran a hand over Joey’s front, and muttered; “You didn’t eat much today. We’ll change that tomorrow.”

Joey's skin darkened and his breath cut abruptly, less in anticipation and more in a kind of scared embarrassment.

“You did a lovely job out there, Bendy darling,” the hunter continued as he tucked the tense Terragrade into bed, pulling the blanket around them both.he caressed its cheek with a grin: “Made quite a pretty penny for the two of us. You deserve a good night's… well, at this point, a good day's sleep, so get comfy now, will you?”

Joey, though the contact was as strangely comforting as it had been the night before, could not reduce the anxiety seeping throughout his body. He pretended to slow his breathing, and waited for the other man to fall asleep. Henry’s arms were around him in a fashion that prevented him from leaving the bed, as was the hunter’s body itself. He closed his eyes and tried to pick out the scent of his roses, and he eventually fell into a fitful sleep as they mixed with the smell of alcohol and metal.


	6. Accidents Happen

Henry was splitting the earnings with Shawn, both talking, though Henry did not quite hear the words as much as he felt them, responding in kind. The number kept shifting in his mind, so he had Shawn keep track of the gold and silver with pen and paper. The ink marking letters and numbers seemed to shift and rise from the paper with the consistency and texture of jam, and the metal of the sharp and flowing nib gleamed against the yellowish parchment as if it had been liquid instead of solid, but Henry paid it no mind.

His Terragrade appeared from the room they stayed in, almost floating from the ground as his feet hardly touched it, coming to him with the sound of little silvery bells, and Henry grinned, approaching him and taking his wrist. 

“Did you sleep well?” he asked Henry in the beautiful gibberish-like language he had sung with. Henry hummed, and murmured, “I could sleep better.” 

With a smile, another one of Bendy’s hands wrapped around his own, and pulled him toward their room as Shawn kept counting currency, undisturbed and oblivious. Smiling, Henry slipped his hands under the demon’s shirt as he sat on the bed, Bendy seated on his lap, a set of arms wrapping over Henry’s shoulders. He appreciated the flexing of the muscles in his back with the lightest of smiles, rippling like rivers. Bendy sighed, leaning back against him, and he eased them to lay together in the bed. His hands ran along the body before him, rubbing circles on his stomach and tracing the flesh of his chest. Dozens and dozens of slender fingers began running across his skin -- when did he bare it? Oh, no matter -- with a multitude of incongruent patterns that transformed goosebumps accompanied by hitching breaths in shimmering skin colored scales and gasps of warming vapors foretelling spits of fire, as if the Terragrade’s caresses were turning him into a completely different creature, one with blood of boiling magma… and the whole while he smiled and pulled him all the closer.

Henry woke up with a gasp, feeling cold sweat drip down his brow. To his relief, the Terragrade was not in the bed. His stomach roiled and he shifted. Homesickness was no joke, he thought to himself as his body's temperature decreased, if with a little trouble. A wonderful smell filled the room after a few moments, and Bendy entered, carrying a platter of a fluffy dish that Henry had never seen before with a side of all sorts of berries. 

“I made you b-breakfast, sir,” he said softly. Henry smiled and nodded, patting the space next to him. “It’s a type of, um, Shawn called it a pancake.”

“I see,” Henry murmured. He plucked a berry and popped it into his mouth, its sweet taste coating his palate, and then rose one to the demon’s lips. “You can’t expect me to eat this all by myself, sweetheart. Have a bite.”

It might have been a stupid move on Henry’s part to have him eat from his own fingers, but he found he was enjoying the view too much to cease. He gave him a bit more than his mouth could have accidentally, and wiped the excess juice from his lip, licking it off his thumb, smirking with flashing eyes and amusement as he noted how Bendy flushed deeply. Soon, too soon in Henry’s opinion, the plate was empty, and he licked his lips. 

“Thank you, doll,” he remarked, stretching his back. “Let Shawn know I’ll be out in a moment. I’m going to take a quick shower-- please take my garments from the bathroom chair once I’ve started and take them to be cleaned.”

“Understood,” the demon whispered, rising with the platter and leaving. Henry tore his eyes from the sway of his hips as he walked. Hopefully a good shower would clear his head of his restless dreams.

The warm water made his skin loosen from the terse hold that had taken over his body. He heard Joey slip in and out, taking his clothing as requested. Henry found himself finished with his shower before he returned. Perhaps he would exit it and wait for his demon only clad in a warm towel, chastising his slowness whilst changing. The cute embarrassment he could imagine on the demon's face made the thought all the more tantalizing, and he realized he already was on his way to enacting the plan without even confirming it in his mind. He shrugged, drying his hair. 

Just as he stepped back into the room, so did Bendy, eyes lowered in the respectful manner of demons, and he called an apology for his tardiness as he carefully entered. He met Henry’s eyes with surprise, then his cheeks darkened considerably and his ears tilted back, creating a scene even more pleasing than Henry had pictured. 

“Finally,” Henry rumbled, plucking his attire from his hands. Another pair was covering his eyes in mannerly regard, blushing cheeks still visible underneath. “It took you long enough. You should use those hands of yours to reach maximum speed in your chores.”

“Yessir,” he replied, but there was a hesitancy to his voice that made Henry think there was more to it than that simple acceptance.

“Look at me,” he instructed, and hands lowered, eyes still on the floor. “At me.” he repeated as he adjusted his shirt, beginning to fasten it as he continued to speak. “Do you have an excuse for your plodding?”

“I could not find Shawn, nor where to wash the clothing,” he murmured. Henry blinked, and realized he did not tell him of the laundry room. “I am sorry.”

“Ah, I see,” he crushed the small bit of guilt. “Well then, you were rather fast in that regard. I think you deserve a bit of a reward… come here.”

He felt a bit bad when he saw the worry crossing his face, but he ignored it. He undid one of the knots on Joey’s wrist, and began rubbing gentle circles around it. He retied it once the soreness was alleviated, and moved on to another one. Soon, he was kneading the demon’s sore back and shoulders, moans of relief escaping from lips that struggled to stay sealed. He melted in the hunter’s touch, hands fisting in the cloth covering the bedding. 

“Feels good?” Henry asked in a mutter in Joey’s ear. The demon nodded eagerly, breaths quick and tremoring, hands clenching and relaxing repeatedly. “Thought so… it’s been a long time since someone touched you, hasn’t it?”

“I, I guess so,” Joey replied, squirming comfortably as his neck was now being tended to. A gasp escaped him, followed by a groan. “Many years, at least.”

“Strange, because you’re a rather touchy feely fellow,” Henry commented. 

“Well, the longer the lack of something is felt, the more the w-wish for it grows, but the more ignorable it becomes,” Bendy exhaled right in time before the hunter rubbed just vigorously enough on a knotted bundle of muscles to get a loud gasp out of him. His mind tried to shut down. “Ohh, ohh, more, please.”

Henry chuckled, pulling the demon to rest against his chest: “I guess that is true, huh?”

Joey hummed and nodded as best as he could try, overtaken by bliss, curling into the man's grasp. Like that, he fell asleep, and Henry had no qualms with that, after all, he had to go split the money with Shawn. To both men’s delight, the total was nearly six thousand bulliots-- more than either would normally have earned in a night. 

“I’d couple the rarity with the rain, and bingo bango, you’ve got a massive haul,” Shawn remarked. “So that’s about a thousand ta me, rest to ya. Lucky duck, ain’t ya?” 

“I suppose so,” Henry tried not to smile. Shawn noticed it and laughed, “Bet this would make a nice present for Eleanor, huh? I don’t think she’s gonna like the competition you’re bringin’ into her home, hm?”

Henry coughed, turning red. 

“I’ve noticed the way ye were lookin’ him last night,” Shawn remarked lowly, stirring his tea. “Yer treading in dangerous waters, Stein. He’s not for ya. You an’ Eleanor work because she likes you. But this one is just too polite to shove you away, I can see that plain as day.”

“I am not going to do anything stupid,” Henry scoffed, rolling his eyes. “I’ve just been homesick. Once I’m back home and over with Eleanor, all the staring will go away.”

“Henry, look here, I know you really well, and I can assure ya that’s a damn lie,” Shawn warned, wagging a finger. “Yer falling for that demon, and falling hard.”

“It’ll be fine.”

“Oh, tell that to me tomorrow night when you're dreaming of bendin’ over a back and waking with raging wood!” Shawn snapped at him, his thick brows knitting. “Other hunters I wouldn’t bother talkin’ to about this, because they’re gonna end up on the ground or in a ditch and I wouldn’t bat an eye, but you’re my friend, so I’m warning ya that the only person you’re going to hurt with this pash is you.”

“Shawn, it will be fine,” Henry repeated, darkening. “It’s just homesickness. I haven’t seen my wife in over a week.”

“Is that really enough time to get you all knotted over the first guy you spend more than a day with?” Shawn asked. There was genuine concern in his eyes, and he took Henry’s hand. “Ye need to… I dunno. Keep him distant. This isn't going to end well if you hold onto him like you are.”

“I’ll figure it out,” Shawn sighed as Henry pulled his hand away, putting his share of the money in his hunting pack. “We’ll get going now. See you around.”

“Alright,” Shawn shrugged, frowning slightly. He watched the demon follow after Henry, rubbing sleep from his eyes as he was pulled along. Shawn’s shoulders sagged. “Good luck, Henry… you’re really gonna need it.”

Henry made sure to keep the demon trailing behind him rather than in front, taking Shawn’s words to heart. It really would be problematic for him to develop any real feelings for the Terragrade, especially as Thomas had pointed out before, they would not be shy of killing without a second glance if they saw fit. Bendy respected the distance in silence, rose bushes swaying slightly in their sling on his hip where Henry had tied them that day. He kept his eyes on the ground, making sure not to slip on the muddy grass, the mist of the day prior having settled and soaking slowly into the earth. Henry glanced back far more often than he needed against his better judgement, each time stirring the sensation of a warm storm in his chest. 

He tugged the rope as they came to a river.

“Walk us across.”

“You may weigh me down, sir,” Bendy replied softly.

“Try anyways.”

Joey’s feet sank into the water, hovering above the ground nonetheless. Henry remained completely dry. His demon shivered now, the icy chill spreading from his ankles to the rest of his body.

Henry did nothing, gripping his heart with an iron fist rusting from the rain.


	7. Run

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning for suggestive themes (courtesy of Johnny Derekson)

Henry tried to ignore the way his heart did little jumps whenever Joey brushed by him. He tried to keep his skin colder than ice when he thought of the demon's many gentle fingers, at how they could have curled around his palms with the tenderness of how they did with the branches of his roses. He tried to stifle the tension of his limbs and rout the desire to push Bendy to a tree and claim him as Eleanor had done once, teaching him the ways of demons. The way Eleanor would certainly draw the two together, holding Henry to her chest and pulling Bendy close with her soft sweet hands made him dizzy with the thought of both demons around him. He tried, he swore it, he tried his best to, but they came back each time he pushed them away, all those ideas and wants. 

That may have been the reason his concentration was removed from their surroundings, and when Bendy’s head raised, ears tilting, he did not realize why.

“Do you hear that?” the Terragrade asked the hunter. Henry strained his ears, but did not, not until it was too late. “It sounds like, like some sort of vehicle….”

“Oh, shit,” Henry groaned under his breath with a foul oath. “We need to hide, now.”

Bendy gave him a disoriented look, blinking and shaking his head lightly with an attempt to clear it, though he took off after him immediately when Henry broke into a sprint. Their haste did not make up for the late reaction, and the hum of a flight carriage approached rapidly despite the advantage given to them by the terrain and trees. 

They slowed when it became apparent that they would not be able to outpace the clatter. 

“Hey, Stein,” a voice mockingly called, and Joey froze, hiding behind the smaller man with a yip of terror. Approaching them with a deafening noise and the wide, slightly off kilter smile of a bastard, Johnny Derekson stopped his luxurious carriage next to them and flashed his slimy gaze first at Henry, with contempt, before fixing it with an indecent gleam and rough exhale on the terrified Terragrade. He hopped down, assisted by a tall and wide demon that had to be a Malebranca if the gills and fin-like wings were of any indication. “Good thing I caught up to you, you run like a wild man.”

Henry stepped back even as Johnny stepped forward, Bendy cowering behind him. 

“What do you want, Johnny?”

“You know the answer to that, Henry,” the collector hissed. His fingers twitched with clear want, and his breath felt sharper than a blade of ice: “I want  _ that.  _ I _ need  _ that. Ever since you showed it off like a pornstar’s wares--”

“Showing off?” Henry snarled, glaring at him. “You just walked in at the wrong time! I don’t care if you had an appointment, if I offered him to you, that would be different! But I didn’t! He’s not. For. Sale!”

“I haven't been able to  _ sleep _ !” Derekson barked. Joey flinched violently at the raising of his voice, and Henry's arm shot out to shield him. “I haven’t been able to get off! Every moment that passes, it slithers into my thoughts like a cunning vixen in my bed and refuses to leave! It's not a matter of you wanting or not wanting to sell it, no matter the price I name, Stein. I  _ must _ own it. Simple as that. I’m giving you one, last, chance. Name a price.”

“You fucking off without touching him,” Henry growled. 

Johnny looked at him, shaking his head in disappointment.

“Your loss.”

He snapped his fingers.

Henry hardly had a moment to react as an oni charged him down to a tree, ramming him to it with massive horns. Joey screamed in horror, ducking under the grasp of a gaap in swooping flight, but unable to avoid the coiling whip of an abrasax. Following that, a naga with lashing twin tails wrapped around Henry, grasping his wrists and holding him to the tree as he was still stunned, a living rope. A grinning ghaddar extended sharp claws, directing Henry to look at Johnny. 

The Brokenheart unraveled the Terragrade from the whip, cusping his chin with the tips of his fingers. Henry could only hear the thunder of his heartbeat in rage and pent energy.

“You should have sold it to me when I offered,” Johnny sighed, turning his head left and right, inspecting Joey, the demon forced mute by absolute terror. “Oh, yes. This one will do just right. You know Henry, I was thinking about killing you, but having it with me now makes me feel a bit better. Maybe I’ll leave you with I’o, and let her have her way with you.”

The ghaddar’s grin grew sharper.

Henry said nothing, simmering angrily. 

Derekson pulled Joey to his chest, nuzzling his nose into the curve of his neck. 

“Mm, that’s perfect,” he groaned appreciatively. “What’s that undertone, though, I wonder….”

Henry turned cold, and his hand slowly began inching down to the discarded rope.

“Smells like…” Johnny inhaled long and slow a second time. He drew away with a wide grin. “Like sex. Funny thing, though, Henry….”

Henry looked back at him, making sure to not show his hand reaching, reaching.

“It’s not coming from him.”

Joey somehow was even more still.

“Could it be?” Johnny asked, eyes glowing, a laugh escaping him. “You want him just as bad as I do!”

Johnny bent Joey over the front of the flight machine, a hand digging into his neck. He signalled for the demons grasping Henry to release him slightly, not enough to run to rescue his Terragrade. Henry burned in anger. Derekson raked his free hand over Bendy’s side, gripping his hip and forcing him to move erotically. 

“Oh, you want him? You want to feel him inside and out, don’t you?” Henry’s hand almost reached the end of the rope as Johnny taunted him with the twisting and turning of Joey, making him bend further forward suddenly, forcing a sound of pain. “I can smell it, you’ve been craving.”

“Bendy, fight him!” Henry yelled, finally having the rope in his hand. The demon whipped around, tearing his shirt, and shoved the collector, punched another demon, kicked a third. “Get me out and run!”

Joey jumped: twelve feet up and twenty four towards Henry. The movement was so fulminous that Derekson failed to register it at first, his now empty grip collapsing into itself and nearly sending him tumbling on the ground like a small tree not expecting to be cut down so soon. His head turned to see the Terragrade rip his demons away from the hunter with same ease of pulling weeds from a garden, strong horrendous bodies hitting the ground with all of their weight yelping in pain, and by the time his gaze had focused enough on the scene to understand what was happening and he had outstretched his arm to yell the order of going after the fugitive duo, hunter and catch had already gotten a noticeable running start, accumulating more and more distance between them and the collector with every passing second. He swore loudly, hands clenching into fists. He felt something soft in his palm, and he looked at the small scrap of Joey’s clothes that had ripped off in his grasp. 

A dangerous calm spread over his face, followed by the eerily gentle sound of the mechanisms of his cruel mind moving slowly, deep in thought. He snapped again, and was assisted back into his coach. 

“Back to the museum,” he cooly directed. “I have an idea.”

Joey and Henry ran. They ran as fast as their legs would allow while flames chewed down on their lungs, every noise around them or shape reaching out to them from the corner of their eyes a new threat clawing at their heels. They thundered across the ground as far as they could until the light of day began falling closer and closer to the horizon, tinting the world with a cold orange hue, and only then they realized there had been nobody after them, and they suddenly stopped. Henry wheezed and coughed as he attempted to inhale oxygen without wearily falling on his hands and knees. Joey did not have the same problem with dignity, and let his body lay on the cold ground with an exhausted groan, though he had not panted as Henry did, used to running for long stretches of time.

For long moments they waited without saying a word and simply took the burning pain cursing through their legs and lungs.

Then the hunter gulped, and breathed out: “That was a vertical leap, alright.”

The Terragrade did not answer.

“Come…” Henry took a deep breath, stretching his ribcage until he felt like the simple act of speaking as he tugged weakly at the rope around the demon would not have left him breathless, “Come on now. We need shelter. Let's find a nice place to lay down in and call it a day, eh? Just somewhere to sleep until tomorrow. How does that sound?”

Very slowly, helping himself with all of his arms, Joey brought himself back on his own two feet. He nodded. Henry nodded with him: “Good,” he said as his voice got a little hoarse, “Good.” he repeated. They began walking again, at a much mellower pace that would have kept their exhausted legs from crumbling on themselves.

“Cave,” Bendy remarked, pointing. Henry patted his shoulder gently as he spotted what would have been their shelter for the night: “Atta boy.” he murmured.

They settled not too deep inside of it. The hunter scavenged his backpack in the hope of finding some kind of unspoiled remnants of the provisions he had had the foresight of bringing with himself in abundance before that fateful five days long hunt had begun and whatever Shawn had kindly given him.

There was jerky, some vaguely stale but still edible bread, some hard cheese (part of which had gotten quite soft, and not in a good way -- he made a mental note to cut that part out), a gently wrapped bag of berries-- clearly picked by Joey. In a similar bag, mushrooms and some herbs sat in wait, along with chestnuts and walnuts. 

“Do you want me to start a fire for this?” he asked, raising the bag. Joey thought for a moment, and then nodded. 

The lucky thing about being in a forest, Henry decided long ago, is that wherever you turn there is firewood. The whole place is made of nothing but firewood. Even when the air is humid and the branches are not as dry as they should be (which was the current situation, he noted much to his chagrin), there is always firewood. He dried the branches on each other as best as he could before assembling them into a bonfire. After the first few tries, he resigned to sacrificing a bit of the oil he had with himself on them: finally, it allowed the fire to stick to the wood, spreading its feeble warmth to the small area around it. Joey extended his hands towards the flames, sighing gratefully as the heat seeped into his flesh.

The chestnuts roasted slowly on Henry's small pan, their smell making both mouths water. As they waited for them to cook, the hunter bit down on some jerky, the salty taste coating the tongue and its rough texture turning malleable only after the hard work of his teeth; the Terragrade preferred slowly nibbling the berries, popping them in his mouth one at a time even as he stirred the mushrooms with their spices in a little fiber pot, the marinating scent calming. The water satchel laid between them, and they took slow swigs from it.

They ate in silence. More than the meal's simplicity they savoured its warmth as it settled in their stomachs and on their eyelids, filling them with nutrients and amplifying their tiredness. Joey did not fight as Henry gently made a motion to bring him closer, nestling against the hunter's tepid body without needing to be told to do so. Henry listened as the Terragrade's breath slowed down while he drifted to sleep, suddenly rousing to rescue the mushrooms, making Henry laugh softly, eyes squinting. Joey’s cooking was not incredible, but it was rather good, especially in a situation where not nearly all his faculties were available to him. The spices brought a nice flavour to his taste buds, too, so he could not complain. Their eyes met as they set aside their makeshift platters, and Henry could not help but trace Bendy’s cheekbone with his eye. In the firelight, Joey’s eyes looked like small suns, burning hot and quietly urging him to reach out and touch them, no matter how much his skin would have been scorched by their radiant flames. Joey’s expression was tranquil, but roiling beneath skin and skull, thoughts churning like a piston in a steam engine. Henry thought that the Terragrade might be the most brilliant being that could ever exist. He shone like an uncut diamond still trapped between dull rocks. Henry wondered if he could cut his chapped glass lips upon red gems, and a maw splitting yawn tore that thought away. 

“Let’s get to sleep, doll,” he murmured, rubbing at his eye, wrapping an arm around the demon's shoulders as he pulled a blanket over the two of them. Bendy vibrated briefly, laying his head on the hunter's chest, turning to listen to his heartbeat. Those burning gems that Henry had been so fixated on hid behind dark eyelids, and with a tired mix of a hum and a groaning sigh, he fell asleep. Henry turned his gaze from the ink blue wisps of hair to the crackling orange, yellow, and red fire. The particular smell of burning wood filled his nostrils, and the soft noises of the forest kept him company.

He did not notice how, but lips were pressing on his mouth, two arms wrapped over his shoulders, two around his middle, and two behind them for balance.

He blinked twice, and Bendy moaned against his teeth as he pried them open with his tongue and dug into his throat in search of warm, wet, pulsing treasures with the most intense kiss Henry had ever experienced, his mouth opening wider in shock and delight. The demon’s many hands were wrapped tightly around him, groping as gentle as flower petals and drawing most beautiful shapes on him, tremblingly slipping beneath his clothes to feel his skin under magnificent soft and warm palms, combing and kneading and pulling gently at his hair to make his lips part all the more, molding him beneath his touch to angle him better as he kissed him ravishingly, deeply, beautifully, mesmerizingly. 

Henry let himself be made into a groaning, moaning mess, eyes fluttering as he fought to remain conscious, not wanting to lose a single second of this astounding bliss. The demon's scorching breath sent shivers all across his body, and the dying fire lit the dark visage with gorgeous colors, making those ruby eyes gleam so very sensually whenever Bendy would allow him to catch a glimpse of them. Henry's pale hands outstretched to cup his cheeks and neck in a wild haze, trembling as he tried not to melt completely under the overwhelming passion with which the demon kissed him and forced him beneath him, straddling himself on the hunter's hips, pushing him against the ground. He gasped and gagged with every little movement of Joey's body, from the innumerable fingertips to the subtle clenching of his thighs around the shorter man's body, each time flinching away yet drawn back over and over, kissing deeper and deeper, hardly moving back to breathe. Henry’s muscles burned as overworked engines and his blood rushed wildly inside his veins to power his body, so hot that it lost its liquid nature and turned into iron-tasting steam, filling his skull and turning it into a hot air balloon. 

“Bendy,” he murmured, a tail wrapping around his wrist, directing it down to hips. “Bendy, you’re so good.”

There was no reply other than the kiss deepening, somehow. He accepted that, with a hum of approval and coaxing him closer with a thumb under his jaw. With his knees, he could feel Bendy slide down his body, and then back up, like a snake upon a coil. It only served to make Henry smile against his lips, the tail still wrapped around his hand, a hand that slipped into pants that were just a little too loose, feeling soft yet scarred hips beneath his fingers. Henry wondered how many scars his demon had, but he could not think long as the other tail was inching under his shirt, another appendage whose touch sent Henry going mad. Henry groaned and adjusted Joey to sit upon his lap in a more comfortable position.

“What’s gotten you all over me?” Henry half chuckled, half wondered in bewilderment. “I know I’m very attractive, but aren’t you rushing?”

No response other than another gaze, scalding yet pleasant, lips moving to a neck and softly nipping along both sides of the hunter’s jaw, up to the corners of his eyes, licking lips and inhaling deeply before pressing into them once more. 

“Bendy,” Henry sighed again, cupping his cheek. “What’s your name?”

The demon moved back, a small click as their lips parted. A hot, moist trail of kisses made along the side of his face Henry’s stomach tightened in anticipation, warm breath trickling through his hair and upon his skin. His mind was clouded with a pleasing haze as hips shifted over his own to reach his ear.

A shocking white shot through his skull, and he gasped--

and woke up.

Sweat, icy cold and trailing hot, coated him, leaving him feeling as though he had been in an ocean spray. 

Shit.

A whine built in his throat, body protesting the sudden lack of stimulation, purely imagined or not. His eyes fixated on the long demon, curled up like a snake or lizard, some sort of gecko or salamander, coals lighting his face and general shape every few pulsing seconds. They were too close and too far from home. Henry groaned, getting off from the ground, spine popping into place in protest of movement. However, Henry knew that he needed to take care of this urgently, otherwise it would be painful for him to be around the Terragrade for the rest of the journey. 

A snap resounded from under his foot, amplified by the cave. He cursed as lifted his foot to see a branch, and then he felt eyes on him, the gasp of the demon’s awakening covered his hissed inhale and curse.

“Bendy,” he remarked, the desperation in his voice twitching, though he thought he had managed to keep that aspect to a minimum. “Where is a river?”

“Wha’... a river? Oh, um… I can lead you to the nearest one,” the demon replied, perplexed, rubbing sleep from his pretty red eyes. Henry felt his face explode in bursts of flames with the suggestion of the demon coming with him. “It’s fast, though.”

“No need to accompany me,” the hunter quickly shrugged.

“The rivers in this region are v-very dangerous,” Joey said, tilting his head. “Though, if I hear and r-recall correctly, this cave should have natural hot springs further back.”

“How far back?” Henry inquired, for safety of both his body and Joey’s ears.

“Far enough that a shout can be heard in case a bear or other creature appears,” he answered, big eyed and assuring. “However, there shouldn’t be any here.”

“Lead me, then, and then come back here and wait.”

“Is something th-the matter, sir? The naga did not bite you, did they?”

“No,” Henry reassured him, “No, I'm just… I just need a bath. My clothes are drenched in sweat and now that it's chilling it's making me freeze.”

“I can wash your clothes while you bathe,” Joey told him, picking up a leftover stick and crushing one end, placing it against a dying ember, and it slowly sparked to life. “Right this way.”   
  


Henry followed at a safe distance behind, being led by the rope as it grew darker.

There were indeed hot springs deeper in the cave, creating a soft tepid fog just around them. Joey chose a smaller one to wash Henry's clothes in, which the hunter took off behind the privacy of a large stalagmite. He had brought a bit of soap from his pack, and the steam from the surrounding pools caused the smell to spread already. Henry wondered if Bendy could smell it and if he recognized it as him.

Not that it mattered, Henry decided. He would find out that smell would mean Henry sooner or later, for better or for worse. 


	8. Swim and Sun

Henry sank in the hot water with a slow exhale, natural bubbles rising around him, the temperature hot and tingling against his nerves and skin. There was a quiet sound of Joey’s footfalls moving to the spring of his choice, Henry’s ears hypersensitive and picking up the smallest of rustles of the change of his own clothes, rolling his sleeves and nearly silently beginning to wash Henry’s clothes. The light of the torch cast long shadows which Henry closed his eyes from, lowering himself in the mineral filled liquid. To the hunter, the presence of Bendy in such proximity was both comforting and problematic. 

He lowered himself into the water to cover his mouth, hands prickling as they pressed to his own skin. He debated whether or not he should have vanished with the recall of that, of that dream, and he knew that it would only get worse if he did not. 

“Bendy, take my clothes back to the front to have it dry,” he instructed. “Then gather something for breakfast.”

The Terragrade mumbled some sort of affirmation in response and rose to his feet to do as he was asked.

Then a gust of soft wind blew over their torch, and the fire was snuffed out.

Suddenly, it was tremendously dark.

“Bendy…?” Henry asked carefully. 

“I’m here, sir,” came a quiet reply.

“Are you okay?” he inquired.

“Fine, fine,” Joey answered.

“Can you find the branch again?”

“I don't think so, s-sir. I’m setting your clothes down.”

Henry clenched his jaw, trying to determine what to do. Should he first deal with himself and then exit with Joey, or send Joey out and then do so? Careful footsteps approached somewhere not too far away, and then there was a splash, and a large wave rising up to the height of Henry's forehead. It was stunning and made him gasp in hot fresh water.

“Bendy!” he called as he pulled his mouth above the surface. Weaker waves and splashes signaled him someone else was struggling in his hot spring, coughing a little, clearly having fallen in it by accident in the dark. Against his better judgement, Henry moved towards the source of the noise. Hands suddenly gripped his bare shoulders, a face emerging from shadows, though he could see naught. “Are you alright?”

“I, I think I’m fine,” he whimpered, and Henry wanted to do nothing but pull him close and reassure him. “I think I might have twisted my ankle, b-but not badly. I should be able to walk...”

“I can carry you, you pretty little thing,” Henry found himself saying with a smile. The demon thanked the total darkness for being such an inscrutable black, because his blushing face mimetized perfectly in the shadow spreading all around them. “You don’t need to worry about that at all.”

“I do n-need to worry about hypothermia,” Joey replied. Henry's hand moved to one of the demon's forearms: sure enough, he was fully clothed, and everything he had on himself was now dangerously soaking wet. He could not just let him get out of the cave and continue their journey like that.

“Clothes off,” he told him. Hands clawed on his shoulder in surprise. “All clothes.”

“S-sir, I--”

“Clothes off, I said.” he repeated, “You can't wear a change of it if you're still dressed, now can you?”

“Oh. Oh, right.”

“Come on, take ‘em off,” Henry urged him. The demon moved away, and then there was the wet slop of drenched clothing being placed on stone. Joey tried to ease his quick, deep breathing, which was making him quite dizzy coupled with the steam of the spring. “Good boy, good. You haven’t bathed since I’ve gotten you, right?”

“Yessir,” Joey replied, feeling too warm. 

“Relax, doll, I’ll take care of you,” Henry murmured, pulling him close. There had been some soap in his pack, which he was grateful to have brought for himself, and felt for it, the slippery bar eventually found. He began sweeping it over the demon’s form, and wished to be able to see him. Certainly it would have been beautiful, to watch as skin glowed even more while the dirt and grime vanished, dark and gleaming like venus’ aura. Henry felt himself drift, everything perfect. Sparks flew in his vision as he rinsed through Joey’s hair, and soon enough, there was a jolt through his entire being. Breathing slowly, he opened his eyes, relaxation making him float-- mentally in bliss. Realizing sluggishly that he should probably say something, he forced his mouth open and let words flow out without caring much of what he said. “Isn't that good? Are you enjoying your bath?”

The demon gave an appreciative hum, nodding quickly. After the first shock, the heat was doing wonders on him and chasing the stress out of every fiber of his being so wonderfully easily. The feeling of soap on his skin was extremely pleasant as well, as was the subtle scent it left all over him (even though a maddeningly feral part of him hissed as it smelled like Henry, a roar building in denial of a claim) - and with a little surprise, he had to admit, the pressure of Henry's fingers on him was not as uncomfortable as it had first been. He leaned into the hunter's softened touch a little bit more, and Henry’s hand passed over his face to rinse the soap from his cheeks, lingering on the wet hair on the back of the Terragrade's head with a caress.

“There you go,” he grinned in the dark, “All cleaned up. How does that feel?”

“V-very nice, sir.” Joey murmured.

“Good, good, darling. Now, let's get out and dry up, hm? I'll get you your change.”

Henry exited the water first, dripping all over the rocks as he carefully crawled across the cavern's floor with his arms and hands outstretched to find the clothes Bendy had washed for him as he heard the demon pull himself on the rocks as well, then the quiet sound of him returning to the waters, too warm and pleasant to reisist. His palms did eventually find the warm, soft fabric of his shirt and pants beneath them, and he noticed with great relief that they were already dry; he slipped into his underwear before stumbling back towards the hot spring he had bathed in, making sure not to fall back inside by accident and soak the fabric once again, forcing them to wait naked in the chilling darkness. 

“Bendy?” he called to properly locate his catch.

“I'm here, sir,” Joey answered, and after a bit of rustling many of his hands, still a little humid, reached out to gently grab his forearms to better direct the hunter towards himself.

“Ah, thank you. Here,” he handed him the clothes, “Try to shake some water off of you and dress up. Don't want you getting too cold out here.”

“I, I -- sir, these are your c-clothes, what will you wear?”

“What do you mean? I've got myself covered.”

“With what? M-my clothes are all soaked, there's nothing else for you to wear….”

“Well, actually there's still my underwear, of course. Unless you'd rather--”

“No no!” Joey assured him, his face most definitely burning with flush, “I-I'm just worried it might be t-too cold for you like that, sir…”

“Aw, don't worry, doll,” Henry might have winked at him had the darkness not been so deep. He checked the ground for Joey's wet clothes, finding them and laying them on some warm rocks to have the water in them evaporate, so they would have been wearable by the time day would have come. “I've got boiling blood keeping me warm, I'll be just fine. Dress up now, I wanna get back where I can see your face. Or my hands. Or anything, really.”

He listened as the demon hummed, and the fabric rustled against his body as he pulled it to cover himself. Henry breathed in deeply to stop his beating heart as the Terragrade's hand slipped into his, to have something closer than the rope between them to safely hold onto without getting lost.

“I can hear the bonfire,” Bendy whispered, very close to him, and suddenly Henry felt his throat go dry, forcing him to kneel to a smaller, higher spring, and take a sip. “I can follow the crackling back to where we were.”

“Good idea,” the hunter murmured back, as best as he could, “Lead the way.”

They cautiously made their way back to their small camp, following the weak snapping sounds of the dying flames. After what felt like insufferably endless minutes they finally recognized the light of the dwindling fire, which they met with relieved exhales.

Henry, despite his previous pride in the boiling blood coursing through his veins, quickly fetched and wrapped his coat around himself as the night's chill bit at his ankles and toes. He turned to observe the demon, and could not help but snort a little: the clothes he had provided him with were simultaneously too large for his thin frame and too short for his extreme height, giving him the appearance of a clown who had grown too much for their costume, yet refused to change it.

Joey, on the other hand, took but one look at the almost completely naked hunter and immediately averted his gaze, blushing madly with embarrassment, his smile poorly shielded behind his hand. 

“Enjoying the view?” Henry asked with a grin. Joey hesitated, unsure how on earth he should answer that-- not wanting to say yes and lie or say no and also lie. “You look like a stripper gone bad.” 

“And you look like someone cosplaying a southern orc,” Joey giggled; Henry biting his lip to keep from joining in the mirth. He bent to gather some of their firewood, bunding it and knotting it, oiling the top. Joey looked at him with a hint of curiosity. “What’re you doing?”

“Making a proper torch,” he remarked, dipping it at a tilt into the fire, and it came to life with the sound of a miniature thunderclap. “Want to head back and swim some more? We’ve got a while ‘til morning light, and I really need to relax from all the fiascos that’ve happened lately.”

“Oh? Alright,” Joey tried not to sound over eager. He already missed the water. Terragrades had also been known as earth-sky-water bears for a reason. He tried to figure out what he would wear in the water, when he remembered his clothes were already wet-- he could wear his mid garments. As soon as they reached the hot springs once more, he covered himself with his broken wings and changed into his still moist secondary clothes, carefully setting aside Henry’s attire before diving in without a splash. Henry grinned and softened at the sight, and, being that he already was in his underwear, stepped right in after finding a place to put the light where it would be protected from the wind while still giving them enough light to see. Joey was flowing through the water as though he was a part of it, and Henry watched with awe. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Bendy leapt up and splashed at Henry, grinning and giggling. Henry blinked, surprised by both the hot water and the action itself. 

A smile broke free. He should have suspected Joey had a playful side, and now that he got to see it, it clicked right into place. He laughed in return and splashed back. Soon they were chasing one another around, trying to wet their opponent into submission. Joey slipped back under the water and pulled Henry down by his ankles, blond hair uncurling to flow with the hot upward currents as if the hunter was falling from the sky. A couple surprised bubbles escaped Henry's mouth and ran upwards, rolling against his face as he looked down towards the mischievous demon, who was smiling and barely containing his laughter in the same manner of a child. In the shadowy realm of the water, Henry saw him, and it was like seeing him for the first time.

Bendy was full of life, eyes shining even beneath miniature waves, teeth barely showing in the smallest of smiles. His cheeks were rosy from the heat of the water and the energy of their play, breathing in the liquid as though it were air.

A living being.

A fun loving, nervous, gentle, artistic sentient, sapient being.

His heart went painfully icy cold even as he smiled under pleasantly hot water.

He rose up and out, inhaling air, and Bendy swam around him, curved out of the water, and back within, a cloud in the sky without a care in the world. Free. Beautifully free. Henry felt the rope tug in the water, just a bit.

Almost free.

Henry winced, yet the pained motion vanished when Joey leapt out of the water and into his arms, pushing him beneath the surface once more. 

A beautiful, gleaming smile. Arms wrapping around his middle and hugging him playfully. 

He was alive.

Not like a mindless body working tirelessly until it shut down and decayed, but like Henry himself.

Something about that made his stomach twist. He was not so sure what he wanted to do with Bendy once they got back home anymore. No longer the idea of just leaving him in a side room and feeding him thrice daily seemed to work with his instincts. Perhaps he would have him more as a hired servant? Pay him for his services? Yet then, what of the profit he needed to make? To rent him out he would have to bear the knowledge that he was putting a living being into someone else's hands like a cow lent to a neighbor. He would not know what was happening to his demon until it was too late. Or perhaps if he showed him off like some sort of roadside attraction, that would keep him in one place and leave him susceptible to kidnappers who would easily slit Henry’s throat to get him. 

He sighed and then drew in air, rising from the water. His head was spinning a little, and the heat was feeling ever so slightly nauseating.

Morning light shone through the gap to their cave. They slipped out of the water, gathering their dried clothes (careful not to accidentally turn to face each other too openly, faces burning with flush at the mere thought) and heading to the front to dry in the sunlight. The air was still chilly, making them shiver slightly, but it wasn't enough to freeze them. Bendy shook his head to rinse some of the water out of his long hair, its blue hue shimmering in a most beautiful way in the dawn. Henry followed his example to avoid being caught staring at him while he slipped back into his clothes once his skin was sufficiently unmoistened by the weak sunrays.

They gathered what made up their little camp between the rocks of their fortuitous shelter. The Terragrade checked on the little rose bushes in their little soaked sling to make sure there was enough water trapped in the fabric to feed the fragile plants and frowned, biting his lip, when he found it had partly evaporated during the night and would not have been enough for the whole day.

“M-may I go back to the springs, please?” he asked sheepishly, “To get some water f-for the roses…”

“But it's hot,” Henry noted as he stuffed the provisions they had left in his backpack, “Wouldn't it be dangerous for them and maybe ruin them?”

“Only if applied above the roots, sir,” the demon replied.

“Oh. I didn't know that.”

“Now you do.” Joey smiled; the hunter's heart squeezed itself a little painfully behind his ribs. He swallowed for a second before nodding: “Now I do.”

The walk out of the cave was exhilarating, the sun now bright and warm, heating their faces and clothing. The suffocatingly cold fog of two days before was barely a little shiver crawling down their back. Johan laughed, inhaling the clean air with joy; there was a sort of dance in his step, a joy about being alive that seemed to cut through the rope fastened rather loosely around him, that Henry felt like he could have watched for hours on end. His heart thundered like the storms of days prior. 

Home was only a night away. 

Despite have longed for it the whole time he was gone, now he dreaded it.

How would he train him? Where would he keep him? Those questions worried him. Would he have him build his own hut outside of the main hall? Or would he stay in Henry’s own room? In his own bed? What would have Eleanor thought, what would have Linda thought? Linda would giggle and laugh and hold his hands, marvelling at his eyes, at how they shined. She would have insisted he play with her every moment he was free. And Eleanor… Eleanor….

Eleanor. 

A deep sense of calm wafted over Henry.

Eleanor would know what to do. She always did; after all, she was the reason he married a demon, with love, truth, and vows of affection and fidelity. 

She would know what to do. 

He just had to get home.

“Come on,” he urged, gently tugging the rope. “Let’s take advantage of this warmth and get some headway. We're not that far anymore - maybe just one more day, and we'll be right there at home. Maybe we could even make it there tonight, who knows. It would be nice to see my wife again.”

They walked in silence for a little.

“Sir?” Joey began, hesitantly. Henry hummed absentmindedly, hurrying along the trail at an easy pace. “Is your mate, um… a demon?”

The hunter scratched at his beard: “Hm,” he coughed a little, “Uh, yes. Yes, my wife is a demon. What of it?”

“Will she be… okay with me, being brought in? Terragrades don’t have the… highest credibility,” Joey winced. “Most of the other demons didn’t exactly trust us.”

“I'm sure she will,” Henry reassured him, “I'll make sure she'll be alright with that. Or maybe I won't need to -- I mean, you, well, you aren’t….”

“I’m not what?” Joey asked, raising a brow, head tilting.

Henry swallowed a bit, feeling a little too warm -- probably for the sunlight, he reasoned. Yes, it had to be the sunlight. Definitely just that. Could not have been anything else.

“You aren't exactly, uh, hm… demonic?”

Joey furrowed his brows with an almost concerned confusion, raising his six arms out, his broken, parchment like wings up, and his twin barbed tails to his sides. His head tilted in question, as if checking Henry’s sanity and asking him if this was not demonic to him. Fuck, Henry thought as he grew red while understanding that his words had taken a swan dive off of the verge of outstanding idiocy. Fuck, shit, fuck fuck fuck, bad choice of words, very bad choice of words.

“I meant--” his breath got caught up in his throat and he tried to fix that horrid mistake, “You're, uh, you see, you’re-- you’re kind of, yeah, kind of effeminate.”

The moment Henry let that word fall from his lips, he internally slapped himself about thirty times back and forth. Joey’s expression turned into one of pure shock with his jaw dropping and eyes widening, then morphed into one of positive disbelief, his lip twisting, ruby red eyes narrowed into slits. He inhaled as if to respond something to that claim, something viciously offended and bitter, but his mouth closed without even so much as a syllable escaping it. He turned away, folding his arms with cheeks aflame in shame. 

“Wait, no, baby, I didn’t mean it like that!” Henry quickly protested, embarrassed. “I mean that you’re soft and sweet rather than a feral madman!”

“Don't call me that.” Bendy muttered, pulling at the rope as he quickened his pace, as if he could have walked really far away from that detestable conversation by simply dragging the hunter behind him like an indifferent cow pulls a plough through the fields. There was a sudden snap of the rope going taut, Henry not having moved an inch from when Joey started to march away. Bendy frowned, and then Henry started pulling him back slowly by means of the fabric binding them. “Hey!”

“Hey yourself,” Henry murmured when Bendy was close enough to hear. The Terragrade refused to face him. Another gentle tug made their hands touch. “I’m sorry, babe. I shouldn't have said that. You’re a really strong and independent person, and I made a bad call with those words.”

“Twice.”

“... Twice.” the hunter admitted. “I won't do that again, baby. Promised.”

“Really promise?” Joey asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I really promise,” Henry assured him, smiling, softly. Joey nodded and leaned down toward him, warm air leaving him in an exhale that reached the tip of Henry’s nose, smelling of cinnamon and honey. His lips brushed against his cheek bone for a second. Henry held his breath, pinkening. 

“Never call me that again,” Bendy hissed.”Understood?”

“Absolutely,” Henry replied, trying to shove his fluster back in hell. He swallowed, bringing up a smirk to his lips, and asked; “Babe?”

To his shock, Joey hummed in acknowledgement, completely missing the point of what Henry was trying to do-- trying to ask, jokingly, if that was what he should not call him. His jaw fell open.

“What is it?”

“Nevermind,” he hastily covered. “Nothing at all.”

“Okay, then,” Joey turned, already getting a move on. “We’re wasting time here, then.”

“Aye,” Henry agreed, and this time, could not tear his gaze from the swagger of Bendy’s step. He was not effeminate. He was just drop dead gorgeous. Henry sighed, touching where Joey’s lips had come so close to his cheek. Once his demon was out of ear shot, he muttered, “I wish I knew your name, doll. Because baby just doesn’t cut it.”

They camped at a clearing for lunch, eerily silent, even between the two of them. Henry exhaled long and hard, rubbing his forehead, wanting to meet Bendy’s eye, but unsure of what he would see within.

“Babe, did I really offend you that bad?” he asked, finally lifting his gaze to look at the Terragrade. Joey stiffened, back becoming similar to a pole, jaw clenching. “It was a stupid slip of the tongue. I didn’t mean it like I said it.” 

“I don't see any other meaning.” the demon gave a low growl without raising his voice nor his ruby irises. “You said I was unlike a demon or a man. Thank fucking you.”

Henry spluttered-- this was the first time he had ever heard Bendy use foul language. The demon had never sworn from the moment he had caught, not even after getting caught, forcefully fed nor made to sing. This was really bad. 

“How can I make it up to you?” he asked with searching eyes, then gave the slightest smile. “Except letting you go. That’s off the menu.” 

Joey narrowed his eyes, thinking about it. He turned his back to the hunter, wings spreading; but before the hunter could give an exasperated sigh at the demon's stubborn refusal of any friendly interaction between them, Bendy shot him a ruby glare, baring his neck in challenge, lips rising to demand: “I'd like a back rub again, if you please.”

Henry blinked twice, flabbergasted, a grin spreading over his lips. He did not wait for the demon to repeat himself nor retract his request: his eager hands curled around the muscles of the thin neck. Joey went still, Henry grinning behind him, and then a moan ruptured from his lips as Henry’s thumbs made a wonderfully pressuring circle on a pain that had been bothering him, spreading his wings to better enjoy the massage.


	9. Alternate

Henry loved watching Joey turn to putty as he rubbed and massaged his back. 

The hunter looked about as he continued making circles, Joey too tall for him to continue at that angle. He smirked when he spotted a tree, leaning downwards as if almost, but not quite, cut. He pushed the demon gently towards it so that he could lay down on it as he worked his way through the tension spread across Joey's back. He bit his lower lip as the Terragrade's moans raised in volume with every rub, nodding appreciatively; his face burned with hot blood that he tried his best to keep localized in his cheeks as to avoid it from dangerously approaching organs far too low and sensitive for his liking. It was made quite obviously futile with a sudden gasp and arching of the demon’s back, and a cry of, “There, there, that’s perfect, please!”

Henry choked on his own air. 

“You’re going to alert the whole forest to us with a ruckus like that,” the hunter managed to say with a bit of a strain, holding in a groan of his own.

“Do you think I can give a damn?” Joey asked, gasping loudly. “My back’s been killing me. This is heavenly….”

The last syllable was long and drawn out, morphing into a moan that rose and fell in tone with the quick and assured touches of the hunter. His head leaned back with his eyes closed softly, breathing in air from his mouth, sinking back onto the felled tree. Henry resisted the urge to turn him over and press their lips together-- something he did not think would be appreciated at that moment. Still, he looked over him, letting himself gaze upon the body before him, even though his mind shouted against it. Shawn’s warnings played back in his head, and he held them close, promising himself that he would not approach Bendy with the notion. Instead he would simply keep him close to himself and resign to use his imagination. 

Truth be told, Joey had not counted on the massage being this good. It really was something, the way the hunter's fingers dug into him -- something he was enjoying terribly, but not something he had expected. He had anticipated some run-of-the-mill handwork with hardly any attention to detail or finesse, fine enough to exaggerate its pleasantness easily, but nothing as good as this, not even the possibility of such delight, had managed to even cross the porch of his brain. Groans that had started as falsified excuses to dig into Henry's weakness were no longer such, and Joey could hardly tell himself if he was still acting or not. Hands clawed into the wood beneath him, eyes closed with his brow pulling together, mouth refusing to close. 

Oh, it was so, so good.

“Henry,” he panted, mind overrun with the pleasure and pressure. “Henry… why are you, nnn, why are you putting s-so much effort into, ahh, into me?”

The hunter swallowed and turned to face in a completely different direction, in a futile attempt at calming his heart while it chugged against the rest of the body around it like a rogue locomotive.

“I'm just making it up to you doll,” he mumbled, “For the things I've said and done to you. After this whole mess that's gone on, you said you wanted this, might as well give you the best I've got, don't you think?”

“I think you can do better,” Joey challenged with a smile over his shoulder, cheeks flushed and eyes half closed. “You’ve got quite a ski-”

A pair of thumbs digging just roughly enough into his trapezoid and almost flicking away any tension there made him near howl like a lycanthrope in the full moonlight. He could not help himself from arching his back, the stifled cry forced into his hand. 

Henry knew he should stop sooner rather than later. He knew he should have. Yet he did not, and only stopped when Bendy could no longer even hold onto the wood beneath his body, limp with slow and even breaths that only sometimes turned to moans. 

“You good there, babe?” Henry asked, trying to keep a pant from his own voice. Joey could only nod. Henry smiled. “Guess I’ll have to carry you now, huh?”

“N-no need,” Joey protested, struggling to push himself up. “I can… I can manage.”

Henry simply smiled and wrapped his arms around his catch, lifting him from the tree and having him lay across his strong chest. 

“This good?”

“Oh, um, yes,” Joey blushingly replied. His mind was tired, and so was his body, so he let himself close his eyes and drift to sleep in Henry’s arms. His slumber was fraught with discomforting dreams, though, of being chained by Henry forever more in an unwilling bond which he would have never been allowed to let go wrists ensnared in gold. He was not aware of it, but as his nightmares raged behind his eyelids his lips murmured to Henry quietly, like a plea, “Let me free.”

Henry however, caught those words, and noticed with a panic that the shielding around his heart was collapsing. Hastily rebuilding it, he swapped the way he carried him, opting instead to sling him over his shoulder much like a large sack of flour, and continued on the road home with Joey’s face away from his own. 

Joey had risen some time into the trek, closer to noon than to dusk, and had slipped off Henry’s body to continue on his own two feet once his disorientation was cured, tails balancing him. Henry once more kept ahead of the demon, avoiding looking at him in any way, especially too obviously. Bendy seemed to not notice the change. To Henry’s worsening temper, the moon was starting to rise too far from home to continue and make it before it was worth to stay another night, either way having to endure the forest and homeless sleep once more. Joey took in his foul mood and stuck to himself that dinner, gathering what the woods offered for him to eat while Henry shot his own meal, skinning and boning it in a manner to expel his rage. Joey started the fire for him as he did so, avoiding the butchering with his gaze, and sank into shadows when Henry began eating. 

“Tell me,” Henry began between bites of meat. “Why are you vegetarian? Doesn’t this tempt you?”

“It does,” Joey admitted. “But I love the forest and all within. It’s my home. The creatures provide with other means, keeping insects away from my plants and giving milks and cloth, and sometimes company, shall they like it. It is easier for me and my soul to thank them than to slaughter them.”

“Interesting,” Henry commented, glancing over him. Most of his clothes were woven from flax and other plant based materials, only some garments from wool. “So you’re like a tree whisperer.”

“You could put it that way,” Joey shrugged. “Most of the Terragrades would use this ability to hunt-- the ability to make their prey  _ want _ to be hunted.”

Henry shivered at the thought.

“Is that why so many humans died against them?” he asked, softly. Joey nodded, unable to meet his gaze. “And they would eat them.”

“Yes,” Joey said. “They would.”

The fire crackled between them. Henry blew the smell of roasted meat outwards, so that it could get lost in the trees.

A prey that wants to be hunted. Talk about unnatural. Indeed, if he could have harnessed such a skill, to induce his prey into wanting to be caught and sold, his work would have been one hell of a lot easier. Just flick his finger invitingly towards himself, murmuring a couple words with a genial smirk, and see the demons run to him like sheep eagerly waiting to get a rope around them. Maybe he would not have even needed a rope at all. Like a hellish Pied Piper, he could have dragged them all with him by their own twisted volition.

“And that’s why they killed them all,” Henry realized suddenly. “Because with just one Terragrade gone rogue, hundreds of people could potentially die.”

“Millions,” Joey whispered. “They can turn their prey into hunters alongside them, and when they’re injured or no longer of value…” the demon shrugged. “Why let good meat go to waste?”

“Damn,” Henry remarked, unable to say anything else. “Did you ever use that?”

“No,” Joey responded. “I’ve used it to escape before, but never-- never to hunt.”

“I’ve heard of a lot of hunters catching Terragrades to use as helpers, but I never thought,” Henry’s stomach churned at the thought of being forced to do something he never would have. Hunting humans only to be eaten yourself by your master. “I never thought that’s why. How… how does it feel? To be under a spell like that?”

“I can show you,” Bendy offered. 

The hunter narrowed his eyes slightly. His finger tapped slowly on his leg as he pondered over the offering.

“Don't ask to be let free.” he ordered, voice as coldly firm as his eyes, “And don't ask to be allowed to escape. If you try to pull something like that, I will make sure you regret it.”

Joey held his gaze.

“We have a deal?” Henry asked.

“We have a deal.” the Terragrade whispered.

“Then show me.”

Whatever Henry was expecting, it was not this. He thought it might be some form of hypnosis, or deep gaze into ruby eyes, but no. A wave of energy lashed over him, blinding him where he did not know he could see. His eyes still functioned and he could look around, but everything felt as though it were underwater and lightning quick compared to his sluggish motions. 

“Submit,” the most beautiful voice in the world whispered, right in his ear, in his skull, resounding and shattering with a gorgeous calming sound through whatever barriers he had left. “Submit, you’ll feel good.”

Henry sank into the lulling voice, nodding. He did feel good. He felt rejuvenated, as though he could do anything, and he wanted to only do things for that voice. It was as though his mind had been plowed and bulldozed and replaced with one thought. Submit. Submit. Submit.

He did.

When his eyes opened, he suddenly felt cold, as if he had lost the only clothing he had. He shivered, and looked up in shock: moonlight was above him. 

“Woah,” was all he could say. “What did I do?”

“I had you recite poetry of the ancient ones,” Joey replied with a tranquil expression. “Once you finished Hellmate’s epic, I released you.”

Henry’s eyes went wide. He had seen that book before. It was as wide as his skull and as thick as his biceps. 

“How fast did I recite it?” he asked in awe. 

Joey tossed him his camera. “I knew you’d want to see.”

Henry’s lips were a blur in the video, though he enunciated each word clearly. 

“Holy shit,” Henry remarked. “That’s terrifying. I don’t remember any of it.”

“Mm.”

“Are you alright?” Henry asked, looking at Joey. Joey nodded. “Okay. Let’s get some sleep.”

Bendy curled near the fire, avoiding Henry’s gaze.

Henry stared at him until he fell into the void of a peaceful slumber with no dreams, and then Henry followed himself, only when he was sure that the knots were tight and Joey would not be able to slip free.

Blearily waking from his sleep, Henry took in the sensation of breath on his throat, a slow and hot wind that pulsed. It was accompanied by two hands next to the side of his head, two under his arms, and two next to his arms. It made him smile. A warm nose nuzzled his neck, and it made the fresh grass beneath tickle his neck through his hair. He let his hands go to the hips of the demon above him, gently squeezing and then running along the bone. ‘Bendy’ hesitantly, and almost reluctantly (which Henry felt a twinge of guilt for) started raising and falling above Henry’s own waist with some light encouragement, making him smile even more (trying to ignore the murmuring sense of culpability in his stomach). Henry let him continue his act for a while longer (though shorter than he might have, despite) rather liking the show he got from it.

“Henry, Henry, I need,” a whimper almost got him.  _ Almost _ . But he could feel, he could tell, that this was insincere. “Please, need you.”

“You’re good at this,” he complimented with a smirk, still drawing circles on thin hips, making red eyes go up to meet his own. “No wonder you’ve evaded getting caught for so long. Too bad for you, I fell for that trick before. I can still screw you if you want-- but I’m not going to untie you. Also, I don’t think you want to get on another demon’s bad side. Especially an unbound one.”

He cupped the Terragrade’s cheek, smirking as he could feel him burning in embarrassment. 

“My wife wouldn’t be too happy,” he quietly warned him, and leaned to kiss his cheek, feeling him exhale in fear and worry. He released him. “Now, go back to bed-- and I don’t want to see you trying to get down with me again in an escape attempt. I wonder who taught you that, you pretty little thing.”

A forehead pressed to his chest, the shoulders beneath them shaking. 

“P-please, just let me go,” he pleaded, droplets of tears wetting Henry’s shirt. They were hot like ice. “Please, please, I’m begging you, I-I’ll bring you money and f-food and I’ll catch for you all sorts of exotic creatures, but p-please spare me of a fate worse than death. I don't want t-to be turned into s-some kind of carnival attraction, or passed from person to person until I die, or a… a s-service at the mercy of high paying pigs.”

A hand rose to stroke his hair gently.

“Please,” he begged again. “Please, I’ll l-let you do anything you’d like to me, just please let me go.”

“I can do anything I want anyways,” Henry murmured, looking at him through half closed eyes, trying to hide the uncertainty in his voice by keeping it low. “Bendy, babe, you belong to me.”

“It’s not right,” he wept, clinging onto him and pleading with voice and body. “It’s not right, please, you’re a good man, I’ll buy my own freedom, please… please let me go. Has our t-time together meant nothing?”

A knife drove up from Henry’s stomach and into his heart. 

“It has meaning,” Henry assured him. “Don’t worry, it does. But you’re  _ mine _ . I can’t let you go.”

“Please--”

“If you ask me again I will gag you,” Henry threatened, eyes flashing. Joey shirked into himself, terrified. “Go to sleep.”

Joey cried as he followed those orders.


	10. Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> discussion of slavery

Home. Fucking finally. Henry let out a breath that he thought he might have been holding this entire time. Joey was scared stiff, reluctant to meet another, unbonded demon. Henry kept him close after his little stunt the night before. The rope was a little tighter around the Terragrade’s wrists than how it had been earlier, Henry disliking the immense time it took them to get home and venting his dissatisfaction onto the demon.

Joey whimpered as he tripped on a log, unable to properly pick himself up as he stumbled along, his twisted ankle spiking in pain now of all times. He dared not mention it to Henry, who might have gotten angry at another delay, so he bit down on his lip and concentrated on that painful sensation instead. 

His eyes lifted to see a modestly built one story abode, long as many houses are tall. It was a handsome dwelling. Joey felt something inside him break, shattered into hundreds of thousands of pieces. Here lay his prison, and it was as inviting as the man who pulled him to it, all charm outside but not within. 

He wanted to cry. He wanted to thrash and lash out and kick and bite and yell, he wanted to put up a scene, a fight, a most wondrous display of defiance, howling and scratching and growling madly, to give in to the feral side that hissed and whispered to him, he wanted to perpetrate the vicious horror that gave Terragrades the first part of their names and the reason of their annihilation. Even if it meant the end of himself, he wanted it. 

The rope burned against his skin.

He bit harder into his lip and hoped it would not bleed.

It did. The metallic taste filled his mouth, incencing that maddening part of him all the more. 

The rope burned.

Henry did not look at him, did not spare him so much of a glance. He advanced like in a dream towards his home, his sweet, sweet, delightful home, with his beloved wife and daughter, and the mere thought of seeing them added five metres to his every step.

“Eleanor!” he called, unable to conceal the euphoria as it sprung out of his throat, “Eleanor!”

“Henry?” her voice echoed back, stepping out of their home. Her eyes took in the scene, and she smiled, gliding down the hill to them. “Oh, I’m glad you’re alright. Your distress meter went off a few times.”

“I’m fine,” Henry assured her, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her into a kiss. Joey looked away, his cheeks reddening. “I missed you really bad, though.”

The demoness smiled at him until her eyes were mere slithers: “I missed you real bad too, dearest.”

Henry laughed and kissed her again.

“Now, where's my girl? Where's my darling little girl?”

“Daddy?” A little pitter patter of feet came down the slope. The most sweet child Joey had ever seen appeared, making his surprise become threefold. “Daddy!”

Henry scooped her into his arms, spinning around with her. 

“Linda!” he grinned, pulling her into a tight hug. “I missed you, baby girl. Were you good for your mother?”

“I was an angel,” she replied proudly, little wings fluttering. Her gaze fixed on Joey. She pointed, looking up at her father with wonder in her eyes. “Who’s that?”

“That’s Bendy,” Henry replied. “He’s our Terragrade now.”

Eleanor went stiff, and she looked over at Joey, then back at Henry, a smile on her lips and screaming in her eyes. Joey's eyes screamed at and with her, although for different reasons entirely.

Though not quite.

Both were astonished and mildly disturbed by the  _ type _ of demon each was, and Eleanor walking over to inspect him better did not ease Joey in the slightest. 

“Henry.”

“Yes, Eleanor?”

“We’re going to have a talk later,” she told him. She smiled at Joey best she could, and then nodded, turning back to her family. “Well then, dear. Come along, let’s get inside, I made lunch.”

“Sounds delightful,” Henry smiled, hugging her again. They all entered the house, and Henry took out two short lengths of rope from a dusty box in his workshop. He inscribed his name into the strands of one with a permanent ink, and then tied the other to a metal pole, sealing it in a lead vault with salt along the inside. The one with his name he took to Bendy, and tied it tight to his wrist, removing the other ropes. “There we go.”

Joey looked at the bond rope. He said nothing. Eleanor’s eyes were solid on him. He retreated to a corner of the room once Henry made it clear he was not needed at the moment. 

“I understand you have roses to plant?” Eleanor said, genially enough. He nodded. “Take Linda out and put them where you know they will be good.”

“Yes ma’am,” Joey nodded again, and then followed after the little girl as she led him to show the yard. 

It was quiet for a moment, and Henry understood that meant she wanted him to speak first.

“Sweetheart, didn’t you see him?” Henry asked softly. “He can’t hurt a fly. Not only is he vegetarian, he’s also a really nice person.”

“A really nice person.” Eleanor repeated. There was no mockery in her words. Henry inhaled and nodded: “Exactly. A really nice person.”

The succubus nodded back at him.

“Just that?”

“Of course just that-”

“Henry, I can  _ feel _ what you're feeling. And he's a bit more than just… a really nice person. And a lot more than a regular demon. Henry, he’s a  _ Terragrade _ . They were known for their manipulative and cruel tendencies!”

“He's different! He swore off using his brainwashing powers, he doesn't even use them to feed himself!”

“Henry, listen to yourself!” Eleanor demanded. “He’s  _ dangerous _ . It’s a miracle you could even make it back home in one piece!”

“I wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for him!”

“But if it wasn’t for him would you have even been in such dangerous situations?” Eleanor asked. Henry bit his lip. “You wouldn’t. He’s dangerous to be around, even if he himself isn't.” 

“Look, I--” Henry’s words caught in his throat as she covered his mouth with a finger.

“Don’t even start with that,” Eleanor warned. “I know how you feel about him. So that’s why I’ll give him a chance. One week.”

“Thank you,” Henry smiled. “Trust me, he’s a good one.” 

“I do trust you, but I worry about you,” she sighed, sinking against his chest. “You let your heart run away with your head so often, Henry.”

“I know,” he replied quietly, kissing the top of her head. “I know. But this one is just an infatuation. The feelings will go away with some time at home.”

“I hope so,” she laughed, “For your sake. It wouldn’t be very fun to be running around with a crush on your valet now, would it? I don’t think so.”

“Neither do I,” Henry agreed from his experience so far. “But, Eleanor, whether he’s good or not, I don’t know what to do with him.”

“What do you mean?”

With that, Henry explained all his worries and emotions, the feelings and knowledge tumbling out like water down a bubbling brook. Eleanor listened patiently, carefully. 

“Well, I think that if you’re so insistent on keeping him and using him for a profit, then renting him out would be the safest for us all,” she said after he finished. Henry tilted his head to hear what she had to say on the matter. “Provided that you make a magically binding contract to anyone who takes him to prevent harm from falling on him, then it would keep him safe from getting hurt while he’s not here and prevent us from getting stabbed in our sleep because he’s here all the time.”

“That’s so smart,” Henry marveled, his heart melting and fluttering in adoration. “Have I ever told you that you’re brilliant? You’re absolutely brilliant, Eleanor.”

“I am,” she said proudly. What a woman. Henry took her hands, pulled her close, and kissed her.

“I love you,” he whispered. She giggled back; “I love you, too. You need a shave, though.”

“What if I like the beard?” Henry challenged, grinning, and turning to nuzzle the side of her neck, making her laugh. “Why don’t i just style it?”

“You look utterly ridiculous,” Eleanor replied. “You can try styling it.”

“I can try and I will succeed,” the man replied, running his hand over the more coarse hair. “It shouldn’t be so hard.”

“We’ll see about that. Lunch time,” Eleanor reminded herself after a moment, snapping her fingers and turning off the flame. “Don’t worry about your ‘nice person’, it’s mushrooms. No meat today.”

“Fine with me,” Henry responded heartily, tired of jerky. “Your mushrooms are always delicious.” 

“Get Linda inside,” she told him, going to plate the food. “And the Terragrade.”

The last word was muttered with a venom.

Henry scratched the back of his neck. 

“Eleanor?” 

“Yes?” 

“Why do you hate Terragrades?” 

“It wasn’t just humans they waged war on, Henry,” she sighed, looking out of the window. “They fought anyone who didn’t support them, and even attacked their allies. They were monstrous brutes.”

“This one is different,” Henry assured her, getting up to go get his daughter. “I promise.”

Eleanor exhaled with a hum. 

Approaching the pair at work in the garden, Henry looked at Joey and Linda. He could hardly believe that right next to his daughter was a member of the species that rebelled against humanity; yet again, Joey seemed to fight and yearn for freedom at all costs. What did that other Terragrade, the leader, feel when he started the attacks? Henry had learned over the years that the bond ropes caused pain for even thinking about harming one’s human, so how did it feel to put it into actuality? He could not even strive to wrap his head around the thought. 

“Lunch time,” he said, clearing his throat and mind. “Bendy, it’s non-meat, so come along now.”

Linda stood up immediately, little hands covered in dirt and pulling the equally filthy ones of the Terragrade along to incite him to go, for her little stomach growled with a delighted desire for her mother's food.

Henry thought it cute that Bendy followed her without complaint or struggle. The Terragrade seemed to have a soft spot for children. 

“Maybe wash your hands first,” he reprimanded with an amused smile. Linda pouted, yet followed the demon to the bathroom to rinse and clean her palms, Joey taking three times as long, naturally.

Eleanor and Henry settled in for the night after the day passed. Henry’s beard was styled and Eleanor’s hair had been braided. 

“It was odd to not do dishes or cleanup,” she commented, leaning her head back. “I’m not sure how much I like it.”

“You’ll get used to it, my queen,” Henry told her lovingly. “You deserve to have more freetime. Think about it, less work, less stress, more good feelings.”

“It’s weird,” she reiterated, brow knitting. “Henry, he’s… well, he’s not a servant if we’re not paying him.”

“He gets room and food,” Henry defended. “Protection.”

“Slavery,” Eleanor shook her head. “It’s slavery. I can’t watch it. Seeing him like that-- well, now I understand why they rebelled. Have you ever noticed there are no succubi or incubi in this trade?”

“I have,” Henry nodded after a moment of thought. He waited a little more, turning to look at her. “Why’s that?”

“Because many of them go to where they’re wanted of their own accord, and are paid to themselves at wages they set for it,” she answered slowly. “However, other demons don’t want to do what humans want them to do. And so they’re bound and bonded. They’re made into slaves.”

Henry did not speak.

“So what should I do?”

“You’re a smart man. Figure it out.”

“I need your help, Eleanor. We need the pay.”

“We do,” she agreed. “But I can’t help you here. I don’t know what to do myself.”

Henry sighed with his morning coffee-- made by Bendy. Eleanor sat beside him, sipping one of her own. Their fingers were intertwined, though Henry was looking out of the window, at Bendy checking on his roses, while Eleanor was reading a book. In front of Henry were sheets of parchment, contracts of days past and current ones in regard to demons of high value and what owners did to protect themselves and their-- their slaves.

Henry felt his stomach turn again. Had he been feeding an industry that stripped sapient beings of that right, forcing them into the role of sentients? 

He had. 

As a matter of fact, he realized as the mush of nutrients and liquids in stomach rotated like a wild tornado with the digestive acids, he had.

Now he was feeding upon it as well, and it was a meal that made him gag.

“I think I might throw up,” he commented quite plainly. Eleanor stood up, fetched a basin, and offered it to him. 

“Here you go!” she said chipperly.

“Thank you.” he replied dryly.

“What is behind your sudden indigestion, if I may?” she queried as she returned to her book.

“What you said last night.” Henry responded, holding the steel, the cold metal gentle on his hands. “That it’s slavery. Why hasn’t anyone stood up against it yet?”

“Is it a good market?”

“What?”

“Is it a good market, I asked. Is there a lot of demand for demonic slaves that provides your income? Or are there no people interested in such things?”

Henry blinked, formulating words: “I… of course, there's a lot of demand. Do you think there's any other way I could provide for the three of us so that it's possible for our family to live like this with a day's work instead of a whole month's?”

“So, humans benefit in both directions, the purchaser and the seller,” Eleanor remarked. “Who are the only ones that struggle with it?”

“The demons,” Henry realized. “And they-- the Terragrades-- they fought back, and they were exterminated for it.”

The demoness hummed.

“I guess there's a reason why you don't hear a lot of people arguing against it, then.”

Her tone was slightly chilly. Sort of like the first morning it begins snowing in winter.

The hunter's gaze turned to his coffee and drowned inside the dark liquid as he thought, long and hard.

“I’ll… I’ll rent him out once,” Henry said slowly. “And I’ll pay him for it. If he doesn’t like it….”

His throat clogged.

“Then? What will you do?”

“I’ll let him go.”

Eleanor hugged him slowly, with tenderness.

“I love you, Henry,” she told him. “Even if you can be a thick headed dunce.”

“I’m your thick headed dunce, though.”

“Yes, you are. And someone else's too.”

“Whose?”

She just snorted and kissed him.


	11. The End

Jack Fain eagerly paid the price Henry wanted-- nearly six times more than an average sale. The agreement made Henry’s eyes widen, as it was the highest that he was willing to say at a first shot, but Jack leapt upon it as if it were a steal. Henry thought for a moment back to Shawn’s ‘rent’, and gave a quiet, incredulous laugh, pocketing the money and passing a bit of the rope that Joey was bound to. Joey shivered at the sensation of the transfer. He was aware that Henry would be paying him, which unsettled him.

Jack was a round man with a round smile and round eyes that squinted when he smiled. He had rented Joey for a bit of company as he worked, instructing him to transcribe lyrics and carry books. He was to clean and cook when requested, though was given a good deal of time to do as he pleased, which often was watching and assisting Jack with a great deal of curiosity, having never met a werebeing. It was not the worst job or service he could have been forced to provide, Bendy reasoned as he worked, and the thought relieved him ever so slightly even in such a distressing situation. Additionally, he noted that Jack was a very, well, touching person. Not in any ways that were uncomfortable (he never put his fingers where he should not have or attempted anything that would have made Joey's stomach twist horribly), but he often patted Joey’s arm, or his head, taking long fingers in round, invitingly soft hands. 

“You’re a remarkably strong fella!” the round man told him with sincere admiration -- more likely surprised of how easily he completed his jobs despite the demon’s thin and frail appearance giving the opposite idea. “And very winsome, too.”

“Er, thank you?” Joey replied, befuddled, a slight blush on his face. “I just do what I must.”

Jack patted his cheek. 

“You do a mighty good job of it!” he praised. “Couldn’t have asked for anything better! Now, please pass these up to me when I get on the ladder.”

Joey grunted as he passed him the large stack of books. He wondered how Jack could read so much in one day, even though he had watched him do so for the past six days. Today was his last working day, and he had come to like the bibliophilic lyricist. 

Jack was talking about one of the books he read that was being developed into a musical, and how he was commissioned to write the songs for it. Suddenly there was a yelp, and Joey acted without thinking, catching the man as he fell off his ladder. Jack's body was encased in several thin arms and automatically dragged both himself and the demon straight to the ground with his weight. The lyricist’s hat landed beside them. 

Jack looked at Joey, a flush over both his cheeks and ears. Joey felt the blush seep into his own skin, the heavy weight over him comforting. He bit his lip, and hesitantly asked, “Are you alright?”

“I think I’m fine,” Jack responded. “Are you?”

His ankle pulsed even worse than how it had in the past few days. The fall did not help with it, at all. 

“All good.”

Jack dropped him off with a hug that Joey awkwardly reciprocated. Henry watched on with the green in his teal eyes in high contrast. He inspected the demon, and then when Jack left, he waved him to follow. Curious, he did so, finding himself in ‘his’ room. 

Henry bit his lip. 

He sighed.

“We’re going out tomorrow,” he told him. “While you were at Jack’s I ordered for you some new clothes. Try these on - I'm not sure if the length is good.”

Henry turned away to let him change. 

When he looked back, he saw that the fabric hung from the demon's body still in a way that was a little off, a little too large for the thin frame, but thankfully it was nothing that could not be fixed with needle and thread. 

“You look good in blue,” he said. Joey rolled his eyes, his grey attire folded on his bed. “I mean it. Brings out your hair really nicely.”

“Thank you,” Joey answered quietly. 

“Now, get some shut eye,” Henry told him, trying to smile. “We’ve got a big day ahead of us.” 

Bendy nodded, a weak ‘yes sir’ escaping his lips before he took his leave. When Henry left, he sat on his bed, taking out the mending tools provided to him, and refitted the clothing to sit on him properly; then, went to sleep, sweet, dark, blessedly dreamless sleep. 

Henry could not sleep. 

Not a single second.

He had gone over this plan many times in his head, but it did not make it hurt any less. Seeing the demon again reignited the ache in his heart despite the hopes of that flame being smothered and hushed once he was finally back at home, in the arms of his wife and little hands of his daughter. His mind told him that he could very simply keep renting Bendy out, and in the fact that he would never see him, it would never bother him. He had not seemed too shaken by the experience, and he would have still made enough money to pay for him and provide for Eleanor and Linda, and it would have been so easy then, to live like that, both happy in their lives, close yet completely, untouchably distant.

One more rental. He would do one more to test the waters, to see if they could be happy. Eleanor was comfortable with the fact that Henry was paying Bendy, but Henry knew that if Bendy was truly a paid servant that would be able to come and go as he pleased, he would go as soon as he could. 

Henry sighed. 

One more rental.

That was what he repeated to himself as he readied his pack. Joey was wearing his old attire, the grey green more able to blend with the forest rather than deep blue. Henry asked if he was ready, and he simply nodded, so they set off to the woods. 

“Do try to give him a kiss, Henry,” Eleanor told him, giving him one herself on his lips. “It’s not good to pent up those feelings like that, you know.”

“I’ll try to,” Henry replied. 

It was quiet in the forest.

He thought about Eleanor’s words whenever he could, and thought about acting upon the idea. Taking his hands gently and pressing his lips to Bendy’s brow. A quick word from his demon snapped him out of that brief thought. They crossed a river, Joey using his internal strength to roll a log to form a bridge. Henry wondered about pulling him to a stop on that bridge, and kissing his cheeks, yet a splash of water reminded him where he was. The forest was quiet, which allowed Henry’s mind to wander.

Kissing Bendy. The mere idea made him sigh quietly and close his eyes, imagining soft lips press onto his own. Noses touching, hands holding and grasping. The suggestion of tilting heads and brushing mouths. It was a notion that made him giddy. Drawing him close and kissing him, then murmuring in his ear all sorts of things he had wanted to say, kissing his ear, and trailing slowly back to his mouth. Licking lips that were not his own, a smile, sharp teeth on his tongue. Deeper, yet deeper kisses, eyes closed and hands moving to make the pleasure of closeness even better. 

“Henry, moose!”

“What!?” Henry yelped, startled out of his musing, shotgun going off. Then there was a thud. “What happened? Moose?”

Joey stared at him, lip twitching upwards, almost laughing. 

“You blew its goddamn brains out without even aiming!” he told him, pointing to the massive creature. 

Henry laughed incredulously. He approached the slain giant, eyes trailing stupefied across its enormous body as it laid lifeless on the ground, shaken slightly by the last nervous jolts before rigor mortis would finally set in. He found it absolutely incomprehensible how, for one, he had shot it blindly and still hit it near perfectly, and for two, he had been so deep into the fantasy of making out with Bendy that he had managed to completely ignore a colossal moose casually strolling right in front of him.

“How the hell are we going to get this thing home?” he wondered aloud. “It must be eight feet tall!”

“We could make a basic sleigh,” Joey recommended. Henry nodded, and pulled the rope from his belt. Joey found a young broken down tree, and with a knife, cut any branches that would have proved a hindrance. Laying it on the ground, they together moved the giant body onto it, and Henry lashed it around the tree, still making sure to leave enough rope to enable them to pull it. Bendy nodded at their handiwork, smiling. “This might take a while, but it will be easier than slinging it over our shoulders.”

“Right you are,” Henry remarked. “Now, let’s get to it.”

Eleanor’s shriek of surprise was worth the sweat and strain. A haul this large? At this time of year? It would help immensely. Henry, after washing away and wiping viscera off his hands, clapped Joey on the shoulder with a laugh. 

“I should’ve called you ‘Lucky’!” he joked. Bendy snorted. “You’re like a walking good luck charm to me!”

Joey smiled and blushed with the compliment, and Henry knew he had to go out to another rental, or else he would have done something very, very stupid. 

He repeated it incessantly as he skinned and cut the meat, as he salted it, as he threw away the waste, as he polished the bones, as he left the pelt to dry off the blood. One more rental. One more.

He looked at Linda, outside, dragging the Terragrade to care for his roses. At the demon smiling, and teaching her how to properly assist the plants in their growth.

One more rental.

One more.

It would have gone well. Everything would have gone well.

Or, so he hoped. 

Joey was not cut out for this kind of work. 

He did not like staring. 

And that was all they did.

They had to stare at him, of course, that was what he was being paid to do, what Henry was being paid to make him do, because dancers and artists drawing from a reference must look at what they have to replicate.

Now, he would not have minded if that was all they did-- looked to him for their references. The problem was that they did so always. Even when they were not doing anything, neither dancing nor drawing, they stared, gawked, giggled, and did not let him out of their sight. He could feel their stares on his skin, as if he had come to greet them completely and shamelessly naked. They never dared take their eyes off of him. Did they believe him to be some sort of magician ready to disappear if they did not carefully monitor his every single movement, no matter how insignificant? He hated that. He detested that. But he had to continue in his silent agony. It was his job. It was what he was told to do by Miss Emma and Miss Abby. He had to.

An entire two goddamn weeks of staring. 

Two!

By the time he was going home to Henry, he already had ladies (and some gents, and theys) fawning over him as if he were a most famous actor straight from the Twin Moons. 

He was sick of it.

So tremendously sick of it.

If a single more person looked at him he would have gone positively insane.

Henry looked at him when he was returned, and his wary greeting smile vanished. Joey appeared absolutely exhausted, and a far cry from how relatively alright he had seemed after a week tiring his six pairs of arms carrying books for Jack. The hunter had thought that some gentle posing and light dancing (something he seemed to enjoy) would have been easier on him, but the Terragrade's shaking gaze told him very much otherwise. This job had been longer, yes, but it had also paid far more, enough to last four months and boost Henry into a field that was of interest to him outside of slave catching. 

He ushered Joey inside, bringing him to his room again, wanting to give him the gifts he had made for him, but the demon was so tired that he simply lay on his bed, then rose again as if to ask for permission. 

“Bendy, what’s wrong?” Henry asked, sitting on the bed and patting the space next to him. “What’s the matter?”

The Terragrade slumped where he had been told to sit, and waited a little before speaking, as if to better catch his breath. Joey’s head fell towards his knees, back overrun by tremors, hands clawing into his surroundings as though to ground himself.

“They wouldn’t. Stop. Staring.” he forced out, chest heaving. “All. The. Time.”

“Bendy-- I… I’m sorry.”

“No, you’re not,” Joey snapped back. Henry winced. Joey looked away, biting his lip. “I apologize. I should not have spoken so rudely towards you.”

“No, no, it’s okay,” Henry assured him. “You’re… stressed. I’m really sorry that it turned out to be shitty.”

Joey wrapped his arms around him, and Henry breathed for a split second before reciprocating the hug, closing his eyes and pretending they were something else. Something closer than an unwilling servant and a regretful master. 

Joey started shaking, and Henry did all he could to soothe him.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” he murmured, rocking him. “I have something for you. Then another thing tomorrow.”

“It’s too much,” Joey wept. “I c-can’t, there were so many people, so many eyes, I can’t--”

“Shh,” Henry rubbed his back. “Shh, baby, it’s okay. You did amazing. You did so good. Thank you. I’ll get you some tea and some nice, fresh cake. Still hot from the oven.”

Henry slipped out, got what he said he would, and quickly returned to the room. Joey looked so sad and small curled up on the bed, even with his brand new clothes and a small safe to call his own. He accepted the plate with a quiet thank you, and ate silently. Henry kept rubbing his back, and soon, Joey was laying down and soft sighs were escaping his mouth, alongside tired moans and hums. 

“Goodnight,” Henry whispered, leaving the sleeping Terragrade. 

He managed to sleep well, for once. With his morning coffee, he sat on the porch bench swing. The air was cool and soothing. The door quietly opened and shut; though he expected to see Eleanor, a quiet Bendy was pleasant as well. He smiled at him, moving to make a space on the seat, which he took. 

They were silent. 

Henry felt a finger brush the side of his hand, and he glanced down-- and while Joey did not look at him, he saw his hand close to his own, and he let his fingers slide over, holding it gently. 

They were silent, and the morning light was beautiful.

Hands on his shoulders startled him, and a flash of darkness encapsulated his vision, and when he blinked, it was night time. Eleanor was looking at him with concern.

“What happened?” he croaked.

“You’re crying in your sleep,” she told him, worried. “Is everything alright?” 

Henry touched his face and there was water on his fingertips. 

“I’m fine,” he assured her. “I guess I’m just torn up inside. I’ll be alright, trust me.”

“I do,” she promised. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” he said, and then laid back once more, not to sleep, but to think.

The real daylight was brighter than the one he had seen in his dream, but it was colder.

Or maybe he was just cold.

Bendy walked beside him, curiously watching him. 

“Where are we going? Why do I have all my things?”

Henry’s heart throbbed. 

He did not answer. 

Once they were sufficiently far enough from the home, he inhaled, long and hard.

“Sir?”

Henry readied himself, and then spoke in such a sharp way that he almost bit his tongue.

“Get out of here.”

“Wh-What?” Joey stepped back, eyes widening. “Si-”

“I said, get out of here,” Henry repeated, stiff. He blinked rapidly, scowling, a quick yank on the loosely tied rope causing it to fall off of the Terragrade harmlessly. “Do I have to spell it out?”

Joey looked down at himself-- bondless. Free. He could not believe it. It had to be some sort of trick or trap. 

“Bendy, go. Stop wasting our time.” 

“But sir--” he spoke, noting the distress in Henry’s eyes. “You appear unwell, are--”

“I’m fine,” he barked. His voice cracked like a branch with too much weight put on it for a second. He struggled to regain his composure. “You wanted to be free? You’ve got it. Now get the hell out of here. Go!”

“I’m free, and I chose to ask you if you are alright,” Joey replied, kneeling with concern in his eyes to put a pair of hands on Henry’s shoulders, another on his skull, searing hot to his sensitive skin. “Henry, I--”

“Don’t,” Henry demanded. It sounded more like a plea. “Don’t. Just go.”

A dark brow furrowed, and lips pressed onto Henry’s forehead. 

“I thank you, Henry noble heart,” he whispered. He moved away, and Henry’s heart burned in agony. He smiled, softly, sweetly. “Maybe one d-day we could be friends.”

Henry felt his heart shatter like glass, stabbing his flesh from the inside with its sharp splinters. It hurt. Oh god, it hurt. It hurt worse than breaking his arm. The shards flew into his eyes, and he turned away sharply, scrubbing at them to make it stop. 

“Just go.” he cycled back. “Get out. Take your stuff and take your freedom, go. Go, I said!”

Bendy seemed to register how painful this was for him. He gave one nod and turned away, pack of belongings on his shoulder. It was almost confusing, disorienting, to walk away from Henry without the burning need to return. It felt… good. He inhaled the clean, free air, and smiled. His ankle hardly bothered him as he set off. 

“Take care of the roses, will you?” he requested taking a pause in his steps, looking back. Henry nodded stiffly, still as a stone, glistens of moisture on his cheeks. 

“Thank you,” the demon murmured. The hunter listened to his footsteps as their sound grew fainter and fainter. A sudden need parted his lips, and without turning he called out to the Terragrade: “Your name. What is it?”

The rustling of leaves under light feet stopped.

“Johan.”

Henry nodded. He walked away quickly, without turning back. He walked as if commanded by a force alien to his body, unable to take in his surroundings in any way; the world had become unfocused patches of colors passing through him like light through a stained glass window. The first thing he truly recognized among the undefined sea around him were three rose bushes that could not have been anybody's but Johan's.

His hand touched them, and his fingers were instantly stabbed by a thorn.

He imploded, dragging everything around him with himself into madness. 

He came to with bloodied, scratched hands clutching broken branches as if his life depended on them. He strengthened his grip, hissing as they drove deeper into his flesh, and let tears drip down his chin as he took in the sight of the destroyed bushes.

Eleanor held him as he sobbed. 

“What’s wrong? What happened? Where’s Bendy?” she asked worriedly, a wet cloth wiping away the dirt and blood from his palms and forearms as she carefully pried the branches away from his clutch. “Did you two fall out?”

“We were never together,” he choked out. Eleanor’s eyes went wide as she understood, her mouth opening into a small ‘o’. “He never loved me, Eleanor.”

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and let him bury his face in her neck as he cried his heart out.

“I loved him so bad, Eleanor,” he bemoaned. “He’s like a little star. I couldn’t hold him, I want to hold him, Eleanor, Eleanor, I’m so torn.”

“You let him go?” she inquired, softly, surprised. He affirmed that, and she hugged him even tighter. “I’m proud of you. I just wish it didn’t hurt you so bad.” 

“He asked m-me to take care of his roses,” he hiccoughed. “And I just ruined them.”

“They’re not ruined,” Eleanor assured him. “They simply need a bit of help.”

Henry sniffled and nodded, getting up to help.

Eleanor smiled, and knew that it would get better


End file.
